(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 David Winkler European Coach of the Year; Martijn Nijhoff nominated for new award
Nederlands
 LISBON (Portugal) -
During its recent 12th Coach Convention in Portugese capital Lisbon, the European Baseball Coaches Association announced the recipients of this years awards.
On the final day of the Convention, Czech David Winkler was crowned as Coach of the Year after an online-voting.
For many years, Winkler has successfully worked in the development of players at the Brno Baseball Academy.
He also is the Head Coach of the Under18 National Team of the Czech Republic.
With this team, he finished in third place this year at the European U18 Championship.
With the Czech U18 Team, Winkler also participated in the PONY (Colt) World Series, finishing in fourth place, the best European result ever on that event.
Also nominated were Pavel Chadim (Czech Republic U21 National Team) and Chris Byrnes (Zürich Barracudas, Switzerland).
The EBCA hands out the Coach of the Year Award annually since 2008.
Last year, the award was won by Steve Janssen, who then guided the Netherlands National Team to its first European Championship-title since 2007.
After the first two sessions of the Convention, two other awards were presented.
The EBCA Lifetime Achievement Award for extensive contributions to European baseball was awarded to Bill Holmberg.
The American is a coach of the FIBS Italian Academy in Tirrenia, but has also been involved for over a decade now with the National Team of Italy as its Pitching Coach.
He also was with the national Italian squad during the recent Premier12.
With the Grassroots Award, the EBCA recognizes coaches who have dedicated extensive time at the grassroots level, developing kids programs, clubs and developing programs.
It was the first time the award was handed out.
When the new award was announced in October, it was originally named Bill Arce Award, named after wellknown coach Bill Arce.
However, since there already is a Bill Arce Award being handed out for some years in the Netherlands during its annual Coach Convention, the EBCA decided, out of respect for the Dutch Association, to rename the award Grassroots Award.
In Lisbon, the first award was handed out to Terry Lingenhoel, who had builded a successful baseball program in Hungary.
Lingenhoel is not working as coach for a club, federation or organization, but is a volunteer coach and is active in Hungary since 2005.
There, he started and grew a club that became the biggest of the country.
Lingenhoel als began running camps all over Hungary and is also involved in the national program.
Also nominated were Martin Brunner (Regensburg Baseball Academy & Program) and Martijn Nijhoff (KNBSB).
Both Brunner and Nijhoff are associated with the national program of their country and work with prospects, several of whom went on to play college or professional baseball.
Speakers at this years Convention were:
André Lachance (Baseball Canada), Jeff Krushell (MLB International), Les McTavish (Vauxhall Academy), Pedro Sequeira (Coaching Confederation of Portugal), Tim Leiper (Toronto Blue Jays), Tom O'Connell (International Sports Group), Ivan Rodriguez (Buchbinder Regensburg Legionäre), Kai Gronauer (Buchbinder Regensburg Legionäre) and Dave Turgeon (Pittsburgh Pirates).
| Previous winners EBCA Awards |
| Year | Lifetime Achievement Award | Coach of the Year Award | Grassroots Award |
| 2004 | Giuseppe Guilizzoni | | |
| 2005 | Robert Eenhoorn | | |
| 2006 | Jim Jones | | |
| 2007 | Tony Klarberg | | |
| 2008 | Tom O'Connell | Christophe Dassy | |
| 2009 | Clive Russell | Steve Janssen | |
| 2010 | Georg Bull | Greg Frady | |
| 2011 | Sam Dempster | Brian Farley | |
| 2012 | Claus Helmig | Mauro Mazzotti | |
| 2013 | Bill Arce | Evert-Jan 't Hoen | |
| 2014 | Pat Doyle | Steve Janssen | |
| 2015 | Bill Holmberg | David Winkler | Terry Lingenhoel |
(November 22)
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