by Michal Hanus
On the weekend January 15th to 17th Roman Lipavsky of the Baseball club Cannibals Sumperk organized already the 10th annual Mountain Baseball Clinic in Ostruzna resort. Eighty registered trainers and coaches arrived on Friday evening for the first presentations (Richard Kania‘s baseball stay in Israel and Pavel Chadim‘s experience from Japan) and the trainer awards 2009.
Only one week after the announcement of player awards, the awards for the trainer of the year and the newcomer of the year were handed out. Coach of the year 2009 became Petr Aubrecht (former youth trainer in Kotlarka Praha), who is responsible for the Juveniles Czech National Team. He led the squad to its fourth consecutive European title in this category. The Newcomer of the year 2009 was awarded to the trainer and coach of Hrosi Brno – Tomas Oversny. Oversny managed Hrosi in their historic season, getting promoted to the Extraleague.
Saturday morning again was dedicated to presentations. In afternoon a trainer’s course started. In the evening trainer licenses were awarded to 21 listeners. Saturday night also was dedicated to the presentation of historic club uniforms (see picture).The last round of presentations was held on Sunday morning before the clinic was closed with Baseball tombola.
Although this year there were no US speakers, attendees said that they heard many interesting seminars throughout the whole weekend from national team coaches. During round table sessions coaches had the chance to discuss topics with coaches of the national team as well as with Czech Baseball Association president Mr. Petr Ditrich. The 11th annual Mountain Baseball Clinic is planned for the third January weekend in 2011.
Pictures from the Czech Mountain Baseball Clinic can be found on the website of the Trebic Nuclears.