The Bialystok Lowlanders have re-signed head coach John Harper for the 2018 season in Poland.
The Lowlanders will play in the newly-formed Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego.
In Harper’s first year with the Lowlanders, the team reached the Polish semifinals losing to the Gdynia Seahawks.
In the new 12 team league, Bialystok will also face the defending Polish champions, the Wroclaw Panthers and the Seahawks.
Before joining the Lowlanders in 2017, Harper had enjoyed a highly successful career as a coach in Europe.
Harper has guided, or helped to guide, 11 different teams in five different countries to highly successful records not to mention championships. He has an amazing won-loss record and as an assistant or head coach he has won the European championship twice, the Champions league title once, the Italian championship, the Austrian division 1 championship, the Central European Football League championship and the Serbian championship twice. He has laid the foundation for the success of several teams including Turkey’s Koc Rams and Serbia’s SBB Vukovi Belgrade.
A native of New Mexico, Harper first arrived in Europe in 1986 looking for a team in the days before Europlayers.com. He found one in Novara, Italy where, in addition to playing tailback, strong safety and leading returner, he was head coach and ran both the offense and defense. The year before the Lancers had gone without a win (0-10). Under Harper, they sailed to a 6-3-1 record.
Since then he has forged a philosophy based on boosting rosters and exposing programs to top notch competition.
Over the course of three years (2012-2015) as general manager and head coach of the Koç Rams he guided them from the lower levels of division 2 in Turkey to becoming a powerhouse in both the university and senior leagues in that country. They have ventured out internationally and been successful following Harper’s initiatives.
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