From November 12th to 14th the European Baseball Coaches Association is going to hold its 7th annual convention at the Mercure Hotel in Cologne. Registration is open since a few days. For further information visit the article from yesterday. Today we would like to introduce you to the four main speakers at the three-day event:
Tom O’Connell
The first high school coach ever elected President of the American Baseball Coaches Association, Tom O’Connell has spent 41 years coaching baseball. From 1969 – 2000 he coached at Pulaski High School in Milwaukee, where his teams won more games than any sport in the school’s history. Ten years ago, he took over as coach at Catholic Central High School in Burlington, Wisconsin and continued his success there. His Hilltopper teams have made the State quarterfinals the last seven straight years and have won four Wisconsin State Championships in that time – 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2010.
O’Connell was recently named the Diamond Sports National High School Coach of the Year by the ABCA for 2010, the second time he has been so honored. He has also been named Midwest Coach of the Year four times. In 1995, he skippered the USA Baseball North Team in the United States Olympic Festival in Colorado that featured four future major leaguers.
Long involved in the ABCA, O’Connell chaired its High School Division from 1984-1996 and now serves on the Board of Directors and heads the Ethics in Coaching Award Committee. He presided over the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association and organized their successful Clinic and Convention for twenty years and, in 1991, was named their Man of the Year He has been inducted into three Halls of Fame: the Old Time Baseball Players Hall of Fame in Milwaukee, the WBCA Hall of Fame, and in 2007 became only the 16th high school coach to ever be inducted into the ABCA Hall of Fame in its 64-year history.
An accomplished author, O’Connell has published three books with Human Kinetics Press, Coaching Baseball: Techniques and Tactics, the textbook for coach licensing in the USA, Coaching Youth Baseball, a manual for youth coaches, and most recently the best selling, Play Ball: 100 Baseball Practice Games. For the past eleven years he has been an ISG officer and has organized winter coaching clinics in Germany, Spain, Slovenia, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Ireland and Austria. O’Connell has served as an Envoy Coach for Major League Baseball since 1993 – spending twelve of his summers developing players and coaches in Europe – and is a scout for the Baltimore Orioles.
Brent Strom
Currently will be in his third year as roving pitching coordinator with the St. Louis Cardinals. Was Major League pitching coach with both the Houston Astros (1996) and Kansas City Royals (2001-2002). Has been a pitching coordinator with the San Diego Padres and at the Triple A level for more than 10 years. He also served that recently with the Washington Nationals.
Was selected by the Mets in the first round of the secondary draft in 1970 reaching the major leagues in 1972. Also played for Cleveland (1973) and San Diego (1975-77). Went a career 22-39 with a 3.95 ERA in 100 appearances including 75 starts. Graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in physical education, was 1st team All American in 1970 after having helped the Trojans to NCAA championships in 1968 and 1970.
Has made numerous trips to Europe to speak at Clinics and presented at the initial EBCA in Cologne in 2004. Strom resides in Tucson, AZ with his wife Carrie and two bulldogs.
Mike Barnett
Mike Barnett (Houston Astros Minor League Hitting Coordinator) begins his second season as minor league hitting coordinator after spending three seasons as the Kansas City Royals hitting coach (2006-08). From 2002-05, he was the hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Barnett also spent four seasons from 1998-2001 as hitting coach for Triple A Tucson of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. Prior to his time in Tucson, he served as hitting coach at all levels with the Chicago White Sox from 1990-97. He spent two seasons on the coaching staff of the University of Tennessee from 1988-89 following a six-year stint as an assistant administrator of baseball operations for the New York Yankees from 1982-87.
A graduate of Ohio University with a degree in sports administration, Barnett resides in Knoxville, Tenn., with his two children.
Brian Farley
Brian Farley pitched six seasons in the minor leagues, after which he became active in Dutch baseball.
Farley was drafted out of junior college in the 8th round of the 1981 January draft by the California Angels. Continuing on to Vanderbilt, he was selected in the 6th round of the 1982 amateur draft by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Farley went to the Netherlands in 1988 as a player-coach for a team in Eerste Klasse. In 1992, he moved to Oosterhout and made his Hoofdklasse debut with them. He remained a player-coach for the club through 1996. In 1998, Brian came to HCAW as their head coach, a position he held for three seasons.
In 1998, he was voted Coach of the Year in the Hoofdklasse.
In the 2000 Olympics, Brian was an assistant coach for the Dutch national team. He was pitching coach for the national team in 2001-2002 and regained the position in 2005. He was with the club for the 2005 Baseball World Cup, 2006 Intercontinental Cup and 2008 Olympics among other events. He is currently the Head Coach of the Dutch junior national team that finished second at the European championship in Bonn.