by Baseball Softball UK, www.baseballsoftballuk.com
Two new members have joined BSUK over the past month: Nicole Napier as a Partnerships Development Manager and part of the organisation’s Development Team and Gabriel Fidler as the organisation’s new Content Marketing and Partnerships Executive, part of the Commercial Team.
NICOLE NAPIER
Nicole began her role at BaseballSoftballUK in mid-April, and one of her key responsibilities will be the development and management of strategic relationships with partners in East London to deliver legacy plans from the MLB London Series both in 2019 and 2020.
She will also work on grant applications related both to MLB London Series legacy work and wider development department initiatives.
Nicole said, “I’m really pleased to be taking on the role of Partnerships Development Manager at this exciting time and looking forward to bringing my knowledge and experience of sports development to BaseballSoftballUK and watching the sports grow.”
BaseballSoftballUK Head of Development Chris Rawlings said, “Nicole will be a great addition to our Development Team. She brings a wealth of sports development experience and a strong track record of successful strategic grant applications, an area of our work which we have wanted to address for some time. Her connections across East and Greater London will stand us in great stead to find local partners through which to deliver legacy programmes from the MLB London Series in both 2019 and 2020.”
Background
Nicole has spent more than 15 years in sports development work, most recently with the Access to Sports project, an innovative community-led sports development charity that works in the London boroughs of Islington, Haringey and Hackney, providing a diverse coaching and coach education programme across a variety of sports for young people and adults.
Before that, Nicole held various sports development roles with the London Boroughs of Redbridge and Newham as well as Thurrock Council in Essex, and worked as a Doorstep Sports Club Advisor for Street Games UK in a project designed to get more women and girls into sport and physical activity.
Nicole holds a BTEC diploma in Leisure Studies and a BSc (Hons) degree in Sports Development from the University of East London.
GABRIEL FIDLER
As BSUK’s new Content Marketing and Partnerships Executive, Gabriel will lead on public relations for the organisation and coordinate all of its social media accounts. His work will include directing marketing strategy, growing commercial partnerships, and expanding BaseballSoftballUK’s digital and print presence.
Gabriel said, “My goals are for BaseballSoftballUK to be one of the world’s best-recognised baseball and softball organisations, to raise the profile of the sports, and unite everyone who plays them in the UK. I have worked with various national federations but am especially looking forward to joining the sports in my home country.”
Background
Gabriel is originally from Suffolk but has lived in various places both in England and the United States, as well as most recently in Hungary. He has worked for 15 years as a sports journalist, starting in high-level American university sport, where he specialised in baseball.
In 2012, Gabriel founded Extra Innings: Baseball Around the World, a MLB-credentialled website that covers international baseball. Extra Innings reported live from the 2017 World Baseball Classic in México and California, plus the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Brooklyn in September 2016 that Great Britain came close to winning.
More recently, he covered the 2018 Under-23 Baseball World Cup in Colómbia and Great Britain Pitching Coach Trevor Hoffman’s 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, New York.
Earlier, and closer to home, Gabriel co-founded Durham University’s baseball team, playing outfield and pitching. The university has won two national championships in the four seasons since the team first started.
Gabriel is currently the Head Coach of Hungary’s Under-18 National Baseball Team.