Press Release Confederation of European Baseball, ISG Baseball
Zagreb, Croatia – Today, the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) and International Sports Group (ISG) announced an agreement to combine forces to conduct coaching certification clinics in Europe beginning in 2016. Jan Esselman President of CEB said “I am looking forward with great expectations to the unique cooperation between CEB and ISG. Bundling our forces will increase the level in coaching in Europe and with that we can work to grow our Organisation and those of our member Federations.” Both organizations believe that developing a larger pool of coaches is crucial to attracting and maintaining more baseball players, especially youth. The project is significant because it represents the first time a concerted, central effort has been made to seriously confront the shortage of qualified coaches in the region.
CEB and ISG have been active for decades in raising the quality of coaching in Europe. CEB, the governing body for baseball in Europe, represents 38 member countries which are recognized by their National Olympic Committee as the sole authority for baseball. Recently the group announced a goal of doubling the number of coaches and players of the game in the next ten years.
ISG, a non-profit organization, has been continuously conducting educational clinics in Europe dedicated to spreading the proper coaching and teaching of baseball since 1985. During that span, they have organized clinics for 23 national baseball federations on the continent and, over the past winter, conducted coaching education seminars in ten European nations.
An important part of this cooperative enterprise will be the development of a CEB-ISG European Coach Licensing system which will be jointly developed over the next several months. Part of this system will include extended hands-on training over several weekends or during week long modules. Plans are underway to hold the first combined clinics in the Baltic region in the spring of next year.