 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | June 28, 1952 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Springfield College | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Boston Storm | |||
| Managerial career | |||
| 1988–1991 | Bridgewater State College | ||
| Boston Storm | |||
| 2000 | Bay Area Seals | ||
| Saint Lucia U23 | |||
| 2012–2013 | Krystal Kherson | ||
| 2016–2017 | Sudnobudivnyk Mykolaiv | ||
| 2017–2018 | Sudnobudivnyk Mykolaiv | ||
| 2020–2021 | Dublin County | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Dennis Lukens (born June 28, 1952) [1] is an American professional soccer coach and former player.
Lukens played college soccer for Springfield College, [2] and professionally for the Boston Storm. [3] He was the founder of the Boston Storm. [4]
He began his career as a coach with Bridgewater State College between 1988 and 1991. [5]
Lukens has been on the coaching staff of clubs such as the California Cougars (where he was Assistant Coach), [6] [7] and he was also Head Coach of both the Boston Storm, [3] [6] and the Bay Area Seals. [6] [8]
He has also been Head Coach of the Saint Lucia under-23 national team, [6] as well as Krystal Kherson in the Ukrainian Second League. [7] [9] [10] Lukens became the first American to coach soccer in the former Soviet Union, [11] and the first to coach in Ukraine. [12] In January 2014 he was one of six American coaches working professionally in Europe. [7]
Lukens was let go after the Olympic team of Saint Lucia failed to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing (placed last in a group at preliminary stage) and he was looking for new opportunities. [13] He decided to experiment with a career in Ukraine and the president of FC Sevastopol was one of few who help him with his efforts although Lukens tried out several other clubs before connecting with Sevastopol. [13] In the football club "Sevastopol" Lukens was given a position of scouting department director. [13] During his time in the club he was impressed with skills of the Polish footballer Mariusz Lewandowski, particularly his ball control and passing, and noted that players like Julius Aghahowa and Igor Duljaj deserved to be mentioned as well. [13] Lukens left Sevastopol after Angel Chervenkov who arrived with his own coaching staff replaced Oleh Leshchynskyi [13] in December 2010. In 2010-2012 when Lukens was in Sevastopol and Crimea, he never came across any conflict situations between Russians and Ukrainians as well no intentions to separate from Ukraine. [13] After leaving FC Sevastopol, Lukens tried to get a coaching position in MFC Mykolaiv, but the president of the club refused to meet with him. [13] Then, he contacted the president of Krystal Kherson Oleksiy Krucher who after few meeting gave him a position of a sports director. [13] Lukens recalls that after his appointment he participated in training for about a week and after left for a month for the United States. Coached by Ruslan Novikov, during the 2012–13 season Krystal Kherson went on a losing streak gaining only a point in seven matches. [13] President Krucher sacked the head coach and temporary acted as the club's manager before return of Lukens. Lukens who at that time already had the UEFA A coaching license allowing him to manage lower-tier clubs was appointed the new club's manager on 1 November 2012. [14] [13] At the end of the season Lukens left the club as it was sold to another businessman. [13]
In 2016 he created own club in Ukraine and became its manager Sudnobudivnyk Mykolaiv [13] (no connection to MFC Mykolaiv). [10] He also works as the club's president. [15] [16] Lukens also acknowledged that at his club Sudnobudivnyk at some point was a problem with match fixing and he had to let go all of playing and coaching staff and hire team anew. [13] He also mentioned that he considered Artem Sitalo as one of his perspective players. [13]
Along with Oleksandr Petrakov, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk and Andriy Shevchenko, Lukens received his UEFA PRO license in Kyiv. [13]
Lukens has also been Director of Coaching for the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association, and he has worked with the United States Soccer Federation. [4]
Later Lukens has been Technical Director for the Elite Development Academy out of Fullerton, California. [17]
In 2020, Lukens became involved with Dublin County as team manager and chairman, in their bid to enter the League of Ireland First Division. [18] Their bid was unsuccessful due to the club's issues in securing Morton Stadium for home games. Despite having two full-time staff and arranging 20 playing contracts, they lost out to Treaty United. [19]
Dennis Lukens has a son who was born and grew up in Ukraine. [13]
MFС Mykolaiv is a Ukrainian football club based in Mykolaiv.
The 2012–13 Ukrainian First League will be the 22nd since its establishment. The competition commenced on 13 July 2012 when Obolon Kyiv visited Sumy and played a goalless draw against FC Sumy. The competition had a winter break that started 25 November 2012 and resumed on 23 March 2013.
The 2016–17 Ukrainian Second League is the 26th season of 3rd level professional football in Ukraine. The competition commenced on 23 July 2016 with one match from Round 1. The spring session started on 18 March 2017 with the competition ending on 2 June 2017. The fixtures were announced on 16 July 2016.
FC Sudnobudivnyk Mykolaiv was a professional Ukrainian football from Mykolaiv. The club started to compete at professional level since the 2016–17 Ukrainian Second League.
The 2017–18 Ukrainian Second League was the 27th season since its establishment. The competition commenced on 14 July 2017. The league returned to the multiple group competition format after it was abandoned in 2013. Final composition of the league was approved at the PFL Conference on 21 June 2017.
Yevhen Falkovskyi is a former Ukrainian footballer who played as a forward.
The 2018–19 Ukrainian First League is the 28th since its establishment. The competition began on 21 July 2018 with the match between Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk and Balkany Zorya. The competition was in recess for a winter break which started after the completion of Round 18 on 18 November 2018. The competition resumed on 24 March 2019 and expected to end 25 May 2019.
The 2018–19 Ukrainian Second League was the 28th since its establishment. The competition started on 21 July 2018 with the match between Myr and FC Nikopol.
The 2019–20 Ukrainian First League is the 29th since its establishment.
The 2019–20 Ukrainian Second League is the 29th since its establishment. On 6 June 2019 the PFL council of leagues presented its plan draft ("contours") for the next season for both its First and its Second leagues. The final decision for the season was adopted at the 27th PFL Conference that took place on 27 June 2019.
MFC Mykolaiv-2 is the 2nd squad of the Ukrainian football club MFC Mykolaiv.
The 2019–20 season was the 29th season of competitive association football in Ukraine since dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The 2020–21 Ukrainian First League is the 30th since its establishment. The league competition consists of 16 teams according to the decision of the PFL Council of Leagues. The season commenced on 5 September 2020. The final composition and regulations of the Professional Football League of Ukraine both leagues were adopted at the PFL Conference on 21 August 2020.
The 2018–19 season was the 28th season of competitive association football in Ukraine since dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The 2020–21 season was the 30th season of competitive association football in Ukraine since dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The 2021–22 Ukrainian Second League was the 31st season since its establishment.
Serhiy Burimenko was a Ukrainian professional footballer who played as a midfielder player and later worked as a youth coach.
Serhii Karpov is a retired Ukrainian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and current goalkeeping coach for Kudrivka.
Oleksandr Zozulia is a Ukrainian professional football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is current coach of a Second League club Kremin-2 Kremenchuk.