by European Baseball Coaches Association (EBCA)
The International Sports Group is running clinics in Europe for over a quarter of century and is a key partner of EBCA since its creation in 2004. Jim Jones, ISG’s president will be the clinic leader in Prague. He will talk about hitting plans and drills for pitchers during the mid November event.
Jim Jones
Jim Jones has over 40 years of baseball coaching experience at the youth, high school, college, semi-pro and international levels. He served as assistant coach at Stanford University before becoming head coach at the University of Wyoming and St. Mary’s College (CA). Presently he is retired from teaching and serves as President of International Sports Group, Inc.
In 1991, Jim began his international experience by becoming coach in residence in Czechoslovakia as part of a IBA-MLBI program. Following that “Lone Ranger” assignment, he served with Bill Arce as MLBI’s Co-coordinator of Game Development in Europe. His duties there allowed him to over-see the selection and evaluation of Envoy Coaches assigned to various European federations as well as overseeing many of MLBI’s winter coaches’ clinics.
When his MLB duties took him further away from the baseball field and into the administration offices, Jim decided he wanted to return to activities that allowed him to work directly with European coaches and players. That desire allowed him to take a new path in international baseball – an assignment with the Czech Baseball Association to serve as a national consultant as well as head coach of the National Junior and Under 23 Teams. He also worked as pitching coach for the Czech National Men’s team through the 2001 European Championships.
The summer of 2002 found Jim working as a MLB Envoy Coach with the French Baseball Federation – spending the majority of his time with the National Cadet and University Teams in international competition.
From 2003 to 2006 Coach Jones worked as an Envoy Coach in Spain. During his trips to Spain he has worked with local clubs, schools, regional federations and the national team programs. The 2003 Senior Team finished 3rd in the European Championships and qualified for the World Cup. In the summer of 2005, Jim worked primarily with the National Senior and Junior teams, concentrating on the pitching and catching areas of the programs. Both of the 2005 Spanish teams finished 3rd in the European Championships and the Senior team participated in the World Cup in Holland.
At the 2006 European Baseball Coaches Association’s winter convention, Jim received EBCA’s Achievement Award in recognition of his work in European Baseball since the early 1990’s.
During the summer of 2007 Coach Jones was an MLB Envoy Coach in Holland where he worked with coaches and players throughout southern Holland. Since 2008, Jim was the regional coordinator for the MLB Envoy programs in Portugal and Spain. He has spent the summers of 2008 & 2009 working the top young players and coaches in both countries.
The past two Springs Coach Jones worked with the French Baseball Academies in Toulouse, Rouen, Montpellier and Talence, helping them prepare for various up coming international tournaments. During June 2010, Jim served as head coach of the Armed Forces team, US9, during an exhibition tour in Western Wisconsin.
An additional international opportunity arose in 1998 when he joined with Bill Arce and International Sports Group to take over the administration of the winter baseball and softball clinics. The demand for coaching clinics remains high in Europe and ISG is committed to fulfill that game development need with the help of outside sponsorship.
Jim has had the opportunity to work with players of all ages and coaches from many European countries as well as staging baseball camps in New Zealand. These experiences combine with his USA coaching to give him a strong background to help game development programs in those federations desiring outside assistance.
Jim and his wife, Sally, have two grown sons