Continuing a trend started two years ago with the surprise hiring of Malcolm Cameron, Florida Everblades President Craig Brush introduced Greg Poss Wednesday as Cameron’s replacement.

Poss, 45, a virtual unknown in American hockey, is the fourth coach in the 13-year history of the Everblades in Southwest Florida.

Poss served 15 seasons as a head coach of various teams and leagues in Europe before returning to America as an assistant coach with the ECHL’s Ontario franchise last season.

“I ended up with almost 60 resumes,” Brush said of his search. “Altogether, I did 12 phone interviews and of those there were really five candidates that I considered hiring and that I thought would have done a pretty good job here. Greg really stood out – the kind of person that he is, the kind of experience he has, and the fact he has won at a very high level.”

That high level win came in 2007 when Poss led the Mannheim Eagles of the German Elite League (DEL) – Germany’s equivalent of the NHL – to the league’s best record and league championship.

The native of Green Bay, Wisc., couldn’t be happier to start his American hockey coaching career in Florida.

“I’m honored to be the new coach of the Florida Everblades,” Poss told a standing-room only crowd of mostly season ticket holders at Germain Arena Wednesday. “The Florida Everblades have a first class reputation in the ECHL. They are known as the top address in the league and I’m real happy to be working with Craig Brush and the organization. I’m excited and can’t wait to get started.”

Unlike past coaches, Poss is making no predictions of a championship during his tenure.

“I’m not going to sit here and promise a championship because anyone can say it. Doing it is what really counts,” said Poss. “What I will promise is we will have a championship process, every day we are going to come to the rink and train like champions and present ourselves like champions and do everything we can to obtain that goal.”

Pursuit of that goal begins immediately. Brush and Poss promised to get to work on figuring out which eight of the 19 players on their official season-ending roster can be tendered contract offers for the 2010-11 season.

Everblades fans can expect some major changes to the structure of the league next season, starting with the conference names. No longer will the conferences be called National and American. They will be known as West and East conferences.

The league also shrunk to just 19 teams, meaning more outside divisional play for the Everblades. Of their 72 games on the upcoming season’s schedule, 32 will be played out of the East Division. The Blades’ most frequent opponent for the upcoming season will be their newest divisional rival, Greenville, which replaces the Charlotte Checkers, who are moving to the AHL.