Press Release European Coach Clinic, www.europeancoachclinic.com
The 23rd European Coach Clinic will be held December 12 and 13, 2009 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. This successful clinic has yearly 120 participators from Belarus, Belgium, England, Germany, Holland, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland. The speakers group, as you can find below, is composed in cooperation with the International Sports Group – www.isgbaseball.com. For more information or registration you can go to www.europeancoachclinic.nl
Hotel
The clinic will be held in the Novotel Rotterdam Brainpark. This hotel is a comfortable and modern hotel situated in the exclusive Brainpark business park. Rotterdams entertainment centre is only 10 minutes away. 200 rooms; bathroom with toilet, air-conditioning, mini bar, radio, direct dial phone, TV with European channels.
Rotterdam
City in the Dutch province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands. The municipality is the second largest in the country (behind Amsterdam), with a population of 600.000. The port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe. From 1962 to 2004, it was the world’s busiest port; Rotterdam is situated on the banks of the river Nieuwe Maas (‘New Meuse’), one of the channels in the delta formed by the Rhine and Meuse rivers. The name Rotterdam derives from a dam in the Rotte river.
SPEAKERS
Clinic Leader TOM O’CONNELL
Tom has spent 35 years coaching baseball. He is the first high school coach ever elected to lead the American Baseball Coaches Association as President. Long involved in the ABCA, O’Connell led the High School Division from 1984-1996 and still serves on its Board of Directors. He also served as President of the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association and organized their successful Clinic and Convention for twenty years. Besides speaking at clinics around the United States, for the past seven years he has been organizing winter coaching clinics in Europe as the Vice President of International Sports Group. Tom has served as an envoy coach for Major League Baseball International since 1993.
TERRY COLLINS
Terry Collins (1949) drafted in 1971 was a shortstop in the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers organizations. Terry was a minor league manager for 11 years: Dodgers Class-A (1980-1982), Dodgers AAA (1983-1988) and Pirates AAA (1989-1991). After being the Pirates bullpen coach (1992-1993) Terry became Houston Astros manager (1994-1996), Anaheim Angels manager (1997-1999) and was member of the Devils Rays staff in 2001. Terry was the farm director for the Dodgers (2002-2006), Japan’s Orix Buffaloes manager (2007-2008), of the Pacific League in Japan. Collins became the manager of the China national baseball team for the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
KIRK CHAMPION
Kirk Champion (1957) begins his seventh full season in 2009 as the minor-league pitching coordinator after serving 14 seasons as a pitching coach in the White Sox system. Pitching coach for Team USA at Olympic Qualifying tournament in Havana, Cuba in 2006. In 2001 he was the pitching coach for the USA squad that won the Silver Medal at the World Cup Tournament in Taiwan. Served as pitching coach for the International League Triple A All-Star game, Indianapolis (2001). Was a coach for the World Team at the 2000 Futures Game in Atlanta, pitching coach in Venezuelan Winter League in 1990, 1992-93, coached the pitchers in the 1989 Midwest League All Star Game and 1992 Florida State League All-Star Game, assistant coach at Southern Illinois-Carbondale (1986-1988) and Southwest Missouri State
University (1979-1981), head coach at Rend Lake (Ill.) Junior College (1982-85). Served as Pitching Coach for Team USA during the 2009 Baseball World Cup.
BRIAN FARLEY
As a pitcher Brian has played for the St. Louis Cardinals (AA). He played for teams in both Australia and the Netherlands. In the Netherlands he managed Twins Oosterhout and HCAW Bussum. With HCAW he won the National title (1998) and the European Cup (2000) and was honoured Coach of the Year (1998). Brain has been pitching coach for the Dutch National team in 1997, 2000-2002 and 2005-2008. He coached the team towards the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000) and Bejing (2008), the World Championship in Holland (2005) and Taiwan (2007), World Baseball Classic (2006) and the Intercontinental Cup (2006). Since 2009 Brian is talent coach for the Dutch federation and field manager of the Dutch Junior team.
CHARLES “CHARLIE” URBANUS
Charlie Urbanus (1955) played 131 games for the national team between 1972 and 1986. As a youth player he won the Roel de Mon Award in 1970 and Ron Fraser Award in 1971. Charlie won club championships in 1979, 1980 and 1986 with Amstel Tijgers. He was “Pitcher of the Year” in 1973, 1975 and 1980 – won the “Batting Crown” in 1979 and 1981 – was “MVP” in 1973 and 1986. As a coach of Neptunus Rotterdam, Charlie was named “Coach of the Year” in 1991 and 1993 after championships in both years. In 1993 he won the European Cup II and in 1994 the European Cup I. From 1989 until 1991 he was the pitching coach for the national team. Charles coached at the Olympic Games in Sydney where the team finished fifth. In 1997 Charlie was selected for the Dutch Hall of Fame. Since 2000 Charlie coached talented players in all different age groups and managed Amsterdam Pirates teams to seven national titels.