The Indoor and Arena Coaching Carousel is always hit or miss. Some coaches are let go and take their careers in other directions, some see the organization around them fold and are left high and dry, but there is never a shortage of coaches with experience in the Indoor and Arena Football world. This article will list some of the current free agent head coaches who have been in the coaching cycle over the last three seasons, but are not currently with a team, or have yet to re-sign.
Table of Contents
Tom Menas
Menas has plenty of experience, having led two separate IFL teams the San Antonio Gunslingers and Mass Pirates. In fact, he was let go from San Antonio and hired in Mass as the season was going on in 2025. In SA he was 9-9 overall, 8-8 in 2024, and 1-1 before suddenly being fired after a win.
Menas has had a chaotic stretch to his career since building a dynasty in Albany with the Empire. He was the Head Coach and GM from 2021-2023. During that time the Empire won the Championship in 2021 and 2022. They looked poised for another championship in 2023 before Antonio Brown and his father Eddie were brought into the ownership group for the Empire.
Before the season was even complete, Menas had been fired, Damon Ware was promoted, then left. Menas returned, only to leave again. The rest of the ownership group including Eddie Brown left, and it was up to Antonio to figure it out. The situation quickly devolved into an absolute mess before the NAL ultimately would just remove them from the schedule.
As mentioned above, he then joined the San Antonio Gunslingers as their Head Coach prior to the 2024 season. He had a rough season in 2024, returning in 2025 hoping to improve upon his first season. However after starting 1-1 he was abruptly let go. Being hired to finish out the season in Massachusetts as the Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator replacing Fred Griggs at the time.
Mass would ultimately start to steady out with Menas at the helm, and from the outside looking in, it appeared Menas was headed the right direction with the Pirates. They fell just shy of the playoffs, due in part to the rough start the team had prior to Menas being hired. In true Pirates’ fashion they moved on from Menas, their 8th head coach in just 8 years and 7 seasons.
No matter the situation his experience and years of experience can lift just about any team, the indoor legend spent time in three different leagues, was a part of 12 different football championships, and his ability to build a roster is unmatched. Even if you don’t see him come back as a Head Coach you could very well see him hired in a GM, or Team President role due to his experience.
Dave Mogensen
Coach Moges like others on this list has a knack for finding talent and can win given the resources. Don’t let the poor overall record we saw in Des Moines fool you, he has a laundry list of experience that any expansion team with a little bit of change for a roster would welcome.
The only thing that may hold him back from landing a high-profile job is the ongoing beef with the Barnstormers (and a 1-15 record in 2025). But as coach Moge has even stated, you can’t win without resources. Iowa was among the lowest in the league when it came to player salaries, and coaching salaries. Mogensen was expected to find success in a city where winning came secondary to the bottom line.
This meant a revolving door of coaches and players during his entire tenure with the team. Barely able to keep anyone on staff or the roster for long enough to develop a semblance of continuity. If you want an indication of what happens when he is given the chance to coach a player up for multiple seasons, you need look no further than Quian Williams. Williams went from a role player, to the driving force of the Iowa offense in just 1 season.
Williams dominated defenses in 2025 on his way to 1,937 total yards from scrimmage, and 36 total touchdowns. He also added eight 2 point conversions. Scoring a grand total of 232 points on the year on a team that totaled 693 points. Williams accounted for a third of his team’s scoring output, as a receiver in the IFL. Let that sink in for a moment.
James Fuller
Coach Fuller was the OC for San Antonio, before being promoted to Head Coach after the firing of the first person on this list. He led the Gunlingers to the best possible outcome given the situation he was thrown into, winning three of the remaining twelve games. Though his tenure was short you could see the week-to-week difference in the on-field play, even nabbing a late-season upset over Jacksonville. in 2024 he coached a record-setting offense with Sam Castranova at the helm.
Fuller has been a head coach in the past finding success anywhere his career has taken him to this point. Fuller is not only a former player, he is a former NFL Draft pick being selected in the 8th round of the 1992 draft by the San Diego Chargers. Fuller spent 3 seasons in San Diego before spending time with the Saints and Eagles. At one point he played in the World League of Football before returning to the United States and playing his first season of arena football in 1998.
He immediately began coaching in 1999 being hired by the Portland Forest Dragons the team that gave him his first position in arena football. He would serve as the Defensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach for three seasons, even sticking with the team through a relocation to Oklahoma in 2000. In 2002 he was named the Head Coach of the Bakersfield Blitz in the AF2 a position he held for two seasons.
By 2004 he was called up to the AFL once again this time as the Defensive Coordinator of the Philadelphia Soul. He would hold various positions over his career including WR/DB coach with the Dallas Desperados, Defensive Coordinator with the Dallas Vigilantes, and Jacksonville Sharks, Offensive Coordinator with the Carolina Cobras, and San Antonio Gunslingers.
He has held Head Coaching positions for a total of 11 seasons, while also serving as the Interim Head Coach three separate times in his career. He has coached in the AF2, AFL, PIFL, NAL, IFL and has an innate understanding of both sides of the ball, and every mainstream ruleset arena or indoor football can throw at him. Current Head Coach of the Omaha Beef, Brandon Negron credits Fuller as the best coach he has ever been around and a big factor in his ascent in coaching.
More importantly, Coach Fuller is just a good person. He is one of those guys who typically gets along with most everyone, and is well respected among his peers in coaching. I believe his background having called plays on both sides of the ball uniquely prepares him for being a Head Coach, as he can fill one of the roles, and simply focus on bringing in coordinators for the other side of the ball and special teams. His rolodex of coaches is extensive and he will never have any shortage of coaches ready, and willing to join him on his staff no matter what city or state he is hired in.
An important note when it comes to Fuller; three of his recent quarterbacks have wound up signing contracts with the UFL or CFL. Malik Henry signed with the Edmonton Elks, Guy Myers, and Sam Castranova both signed contracts with the Memphis Showboats. He certainly has an a way of helping develop quarterbacks as of late despite only taking on an offensive coaching role for the first time in 2022.
Dean Cokinos
Dean Cokinos has had one of the most interesting coaching careers of any coach on this list. Getting his start as an assistant coach back in 1990 with UMass Boston. In three seasons Cokinos bounced to three schools before moving on to his first overseas coaching position, as the Head Coach of the Noris Rams in the German Football League 2. He would spend four seasons in this role before being taking a year off. He was later offered the Head Coaching role with the Munich Cowboys of the GFL in 1999.
After spending 7 seasons coaching overseas in an 8 year span, Cokinos returned to the U.S., and rather than jumping back into coaching college football, he instead was named the Head Coach of the Wilkes Barre Scranton Pioneers of the AF2 in 2003. In 2004 he was named the Head Coach of the San Angelo Stampede in the IFL. In 2004 in would ultimately join the Tennessee Titans as a Scout with a focus on arena and indoor football players. He was also serving as an Offensive Coordinator/Assistant Head Coach and Director of Player Personnel with the Nashville Kats.
After holding these positions for three seasons he was hired by the Tennessee Valley Vipers. He spent three seasons with this team even weathering a relocation to Alabama. He won the Arena Cup in 2008 his first championship as a Head Coach. Joining the Vipers in 2008 began an 10 season run in 11 years of Head Coaching positions for Cokinos with five different teams; the Vipers, Georgia Force, Alabama Hammers, Louisiana Voodoo, and Washington Valor. He would add his second championship to his resume in 2013.
After being fired by the Valor early in the 2018 season, he was hired by the Berlin Rebels as their Defensive Coordinator for the 2019 season. Heading back to Germany where his experience as a Head Coach all began. This however lasted just one season before he returned to Tennessee to coach at the High School level. He spent the next three seasons at two schools before being named a Head Coach for Knoxville Catholic High School but he would resign before coaching a game.
The following season he returned to the Nashville Kats for their first season in the rebooted AFL. He would lead the team to a 3-4 record before being let go before the 2025 season. He was initially set to be the Head Coach of the Berlin Thunder again returning to Germany, but this time he never made it and did not end up coaching in 2025.
Cokinos has a total of 20 years experience as a Head Coach. However his win-loss record looks more like a roller coaster than it does consistent success. According to Wikipedia, Cokinos is 85-96 and 8-5 in the playoffs in arena or indoor football. His time in Germany was much more successful but near impossible to track down records going back to the mid-1990’s.
Brandon Henderson
Currently residing with the Iowa Power as a Coordinator Henderson would be a great pick up to run any organization, especially something like what we are seeing in Pueblo and Dallas. Henderson was initially hired as the Head Coach of the Iowa Rampage for the 2024 AFL season. However after assembling most of the roster he and ownership did not see eye to eye on how to proceed, and Henderson was let go. Iowa went on to fold just months later due to ownership not having the funds to complete the season.
After the Rampage folded Henderson has been bouncing around helping teams around the state of Kansas. Initially joining the Wichita Regulators to assist them for the 2024 season before later joining the Kansas City Goats in a front office capacity to help assemble the roster. Heading into 2025 he was brought in by the Iowa Power to help them launch their program. Initially acting as the Defensive Coordinator, and again helping build the roster, he has had to step in at times as the Interim Head Coach.
Coach Henderson has grown from a brash and outspoken young coach early in his career, to a more professional approach over the last few seasons working with coaches like Clinton Solomon, Anthony Bartley, and Dorsey Golston III. While he is still highly confident, he has developed a much more measured approach as he tries to find another Head Coaching opportunity that is right for him.
Josh Resignalo
Coach Res is your do-it-all all kind of coach. He isn’t just Xs and Os, for his last stop he was sales, advertising, and personnel, and just happened to be the Head Coach as well. If you’re a franchise trying to build up and stick around for years this is your man. Taking Wheeling from the AAL2 to just missing a playoff berth in the NAL in just a calendar year.
Coach Res has been around coaching for most of his professional career. After two tours in Iraq he jumped into coaching in 2007 at the High School level where he would coach for three seasons before his first Arena Football job with the Tulsa Talons of the AFL as a National Scout.
By 2011 he had been hired as a Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator for the first time in the United Indoor Football League with the Huntington Hammer. From 2011 to 2016 Res dealt with a lot of instability in his coaching career as he worked for five different teams in varying capacities but never stuck anywhere for more than 1 season at a time.
In 2016 that changed when he was hired by the High Country Grizzlies. Despite having been in North Carolina in some capacity since leaving Columbus in 2013, he had held three different jobs in indoor/arena football alone, all the while holding down high school positions as well.
After his time with the Grizzlies he was hired by the Havoc and helped oversea a relocation from Atlanta to Carolina. Finally in October of 2018 he joined the Carolina Cobras. This position actually seemingly changed the trajectory of his career. After holding multiple positions since beginning his coaching career this would be the first time he would find some semblance of stability. Initially beginning as an Assistant Coach while helping in the Corporate Partnerships side as well.
Over the next five years with Carolina he took on a larger role as the Head Coach and General Manager. Rumor has it that at one point Carolina could not afford to pay Res is salary, and instead gave him a 5% stake in the team. During the 2025 season Res was the Head Coach of the Wheeling Miners and playing in the same league as the Cobras a team he was technically part-owner of during the season in which the team would ultimately cease operations.
Res chose to step down from the Wheeling Miners after the 2025 season and at first it was not necessarily clear what led to this decision. However later in the offseason it was announced the Wheeling Miners had withdrawn from the NAL and would look for other options to play football in 2026. This could have contributed to the choice to depart as he had already been with the team in the AAL2, and NAL in successive seasons.
Several interviews he has recently done hint at the fact that he wants to be in a stable long-haul franchise and we think the jump from NAL to the IFL is a must. Coach Res is well respected, and while he voiced a desire to jump into the IFL, with jobs filling up fast, it is hard to see an immediate opening for him to make his way into the league. Coach Res discussed his desires for his next coaching stop and much more in a recent interview on our show Around the Indoor Football World.
Patrick Pimmel
Most recently the head coach for the short-lived Philly Soul reboot, Pimmel has been on a fifty-yard field since the late 2000s. Pimmel has gone through some of the most turbulent situations over the past few seasons. In 2023 he was hired as the Head Coach of the Omaha Beef but had to step down due to health concerns. While he would still serve as a consultant of sorts for the Beef, and his previous stop in Vegas.
In 2024 he did not immediately join the AFL, in fact he was named as the Offensive Coordinator and Director of Player Personnel with the Duke City Gladiators. After assembling most of the offensive roster, and even having meetings, Pimmel was offered the job with the Soul. With health in the back of his mind once again, he chose to join the Soul believing it would be in his best interests to coach a shorter season. AFL was only supposed to be 10 games in 2024, while IFL was a minimum of 16-18.
Unfortunately the situation with the Soul devolved before the season ever began. After Pimmel sunk some of his own money into the situation, and never managed to get paid at all from the league, he decided enough was enough and resigned. His players also left nearly immediately following his departure. Heading into 2025 Pimmel again found his way into a Head Coaching Position this time with the Shreveport Rouxgaroux.
The idea was for Pimmel to serve as Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator with long time coach Jermaine Hampton as his Defensive Coordinator. However, Pimmel saw the writing on the wall and opted to leave the team once again before the season. Jermaine Hampton was promoted to Head Coach and weathered a tough season before leaving himself. He is now the Defensive Coordinator with the Salina Liberty, expected to announce a move to the NAL in the coming weeks. After his departure he would assist Omaha with some Player Personnel things remotely.
Pimmel has joined many organizations over the last few seasons but none of these moves panned out as anyone involved had initially hoped. After leaving four teams in three seasons it would be somewhat surprising to see him resurface as a Head Coach in 2026. I believe he is in a situation where his reputation of not sticking with teams, whether by his own fault or not, is affecting perception. Pimmel likely will have to take a position with a team in 2026 and stick with them for the entire season to clear up some of this doubt that has formed.
However if a team is looking for a person who can come in, operate as Head Coach, call offensive plays, and build a talented roster without breaking the bank, Patrick Pimmel might be your guy.
Shawn Liotta
The Rumor Mill has been churning, and I believe Liotta will likely be announced as a Head Coach once again in 2026. Heading into the 2025 season he was named the new Head Coach of the Wilkes Barre Mavericks, after previously accepting the Offensive Coordinator position for the Wheeling Miners. Unfortunately the Mavericks had a tough time gaining the financial support from their city they had hoped for. The team would never play a game, and Liotta returned to Wheeling.
Liotta has been around indoor and arena football for years at this point and might have one of the most eclectic backgrounds on this list. Beginning his coaching career in 1999 at the High School level he gained his first experience coaching college in 2003 with Duquesne a position he would hold for 2 seasons where he won a D-1AA National Championship. For the next five seasons he was back at the High School Level coaching for various schools before experiencing Indoor Football as a coach for the first time in 2007 with the expansion Pittsburgh River Rats of the American Indoor Football Association.
After two seasons he jumped to the Wheeling Wildcats for one season in the Continental Indoor Football League. He would later return to the River Rats for their final season in the AIFA, and help see them through a rebrand to the Erie Explosion. He would coach them until their final season in 2015. During this second stint in six seasons the team would play in the Southern Indoor Football League, Ultimate Indoor Football League, Continental Indoor Football League, and finally the Professional Indoor Football League.
During this time with the team Liotta compiled a 67-39 record with the River Rats/Explosion, and 2-10 record with the Wildcats. He also won two back-to-back championships in ’13, and ’14. Winning Coach of the Year in ’12 and ’13. In professional arena football having the right quarterback can make or break a team. When it comes to recruiting, and developing quarterbacks Liotta may be one of the best.
He has coached 3 different quarterbacks to League MVP Awards, including 2 first-year players. If you want a “No Huddle, No Mercy” type coach, Liotta is your guy. On his resume is a game in which his offense put out 138 points, yes you read that right…in a single game. If you want proof he can manage a roster, and still help put players in the best position to succeed, look no further than his role with the Fan Controlled Football League, where he was the Head Coach.
This league operated in a commune style with resources shared among the teams so the coaching staff essentially presided over all the teams. Liotta essentially was coaching against himself on a week in week out basis. If there is a better way to develop your coaching philosophy I am not sure what it is. After many years with FCF the league shut down and he was away from indoor football for a year before joining the Wheeling Miners as their Offensive Coordinator.
Shortly after being announced as their OC Liotta was offered snd accepted the Head Coaching position with the Wilkes Barre Mavericks. Unfortunately the team never got off the ground and he returned to Wheeling instead. Now heading into 2026 with Joshua Resignalo the Head Coach he served under resigning there are questions as to what is next. However I would bet on seeing him named a Head Coach in the very near future…perhaps even in the same league Wilkes Barre was supposed to compete in.
Siaha Burley
Another name that has been mentioned with multiple openings is Siaha Burley. Burley has bounced around in the IFL over the past few seasons after a long time coaching in the NAL where he found a tremendous amount of success. Beginning his professional football career in 2001 with the XFL after going undrafted in 1999.
Rather than recap things I have said about Burley before I instead wanted to link this article I wrote last season about the NAZ Wranglers Head Coaching opening. In it I mentioned Burley as s candidate, little did I know he would end up the OC for the 2025 season instead. Now it has been said he will not be returning to NAZ, and it may end up being because he was hired as a Head Coach.
Burley is an Arizona native, and spent the last 3 seasons as the Assistant Head Coach with the Rattlers, and Offensive Coordinator with the Wranglers in Arizona. This includes winning the 2024 IFL Championship with the Rattlers. A natural progression and likely scenario is being hired by Tucson to replace the recently departed Billy Back. Keep an eye out for Burley to be back as a Head Coach in 2026. Four years removed from his last stint as a HC with the Sharks prior to their move to the IFL.
James Shiver
If you are a team anywhere in Louisiana you should be contacting James Shiver about taking a role on your staff. Whether it is as a Head Coach, in the scouting department, or even in a General Manager or Team President role. Shiver was hired as the Head Coach of the Louisiana Voodoo for the doomed 2024 season.
While Shiver was fed line after line about how funding was coming from the league he was left scrambling to even get the team to kickoff. Not only did the team play their first game but Shiver even found a group willing to purchase the team although Lee Hutton and Travelle Gaines let that scenario fall by the wayside. This left Shiver without an arena team to coach.
Currently the Louisiana Rouxgaroux that quietly went through a rebrand, and a change in majority ownership, have not yet hired a coach. Shiver would be a perfect fit as the Head Coach/Assistant General Manager, paired with an experienced General Manager that can assist on the sales side and help repair the image of the team. This would be a win-win for both parties. Shiver gets back involved in indoor football in Louisiana, and the Rouxgaroux get a somewhat local coach with strong ties to the state, and a staff that he can pull from at the High School level.
Some of his assistant coaches with the Voodoo are still out there as well. Chris Hemphill his Defensive Coordinator is currently available, as is John Fourcade a former AFL QB whose son was set to compete for the starting quarterback position with fellow Louisiana quarterback Andre Sale from LSU. Just a few ways Shiver kept the team locally based and did his best to give fans reasons to show up. Any team looking to really jump start their growth in Louisiana need look no further.
Richard Davis
Richard Davis has been around the game of indoor or arena football for longer than most fans have even been aware of the game, and his background coaching goes back even further. Having gotten his start in professional coaching back in 1991 with the London Monarchs of NFL Europe as an Offensive Assistant, he helped guide his team to a World Bowl victory.
This coaching staff was like a who’s who of future NFL coaches. This included Hue Jackson longtime NFL Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator, as well as two of the most respected line coaches in the NFL in OL Coach George Warhop who now has nearly 30 years of experience coaching NFL offensive lines, and DL Coach Jim Washburn another man who would spend some time in the arena world but make a name for himself in the NFL.
The following season Davis was offered the Offensive Coordinator position with Langston University, before moving on to Connecticut as a QB coach. In 1995 and 96 he got his first real experience in a front office operating as a Vice President of Operations for the San Antonio Texans that played as a member of the Canadian Football League’s U.S. expansion. San Antonio seemed to be set up well, and their attendance proved to be respectable in their first season.
This is the second time Davis joined a brand new team, and they ended up with a winning record and a playoff berth in the first two seasons of his career at the professional level. Not a bad nugget to hang your hat on. Eventually the Texans would wind up folding and Davis continued his coaching journey.
Eventually Davis found his way to arena football, and quickly made a name for himself as one of the Head Coaches in the first season of the AF2. He would go on to lead his teams to a 41-23 record from 2000-2005 before being hired by the expansion Stockton Lightning for the 2006 season. (If you ever get a chance to speak to Coach Davis, I highly recommend you ask him about his time in Stockton.) Davis, again working for a brand new organization, had some bright spots in his lone season with Stockton, but ultimately finished 5-11 and was left looking for his next stop in 2007.
Davis has since spent time coaching in multiple leagues, with multiple franchises including but not limited to: Bemidji Axemen, Bismarck Bucks, Oklahoma Flying Aces (2 stints), Dodge City Law, and the Topeka Tropics. Davis has extensive experience helping launch franchises from the ground up including in the NFL Europe, CFL, CIF, and NAL. This is valuable knowledge to any team searching for a coach that can help them get their franchise off the ground.
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