(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by ESF, Henk Seppen & Marco Stoovelaar)
  Joint CEB / ESF Congress ends in Hoofddorp
Nederlands
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
The annual joint Ordinary Congress of the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) and European Softball Federation (ESF) was held on Saturday.
The Congress was preceeded on Friday by several Commission-meetings and presentations.
On Sunday, the delegations of the European federations returned home.
The location this year was the Hotel Courtyard by Marriott Amsterdam Airport in Hoofddorp (Netherlands), which will host the European Baseball Championship in September of this year.
During a presentation by the Organizing Committee of the European Baseball Championship, it was announced that games also will be played at the site of Vennep Flyers in Nieuw-Vennep, which also is part of the Municipality of Haarlemmermeer, as is Hoofddorp.
There will be one game played there each day.
For this reason, the logo has changed slightly.
Instead of the word 'Hoofddorp', it now shows 'Haarlemmermeer'.
In the event, reigning champion the Netherlands plays in Group A and meets respectively Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic and Sweden in the preliminary round.
Playing in Group B are Belgium, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy and Spain.
Thirty countries attended the Congress, whose representatives were welcomed by CEB-President Jan Esselman and ESF-President André van Overbeek (both Netherlands).
One of the special guests was Italian Riccardo Fraccari, President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).
During the Congress, the ESF announced the pool alignments for three European Championships to be held this year.
In the European Championship Women Softball U22 (July 4-9 at Pardubice, Czech Republic) are as follows:
Pool A: Czech Republic, Greece, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland
Pool B: Croatia, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine
...CEB-President Jan Esselman and ESF-President...
...André van Overbeek welcome the attendees...
(© Photo courtesy of ESF) |
The pool alignments for the European Junior Championship Softball Women (August 1-6 at Sant Boi/Gavà, Spain) are:
Pool A: Italy, Poland, Serbia, Spain
Pool B: Great Britain, Israel, Lithuania
Pool C: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark
Pool D: Croatia, Germany, Russia
The pool alignments for the European Championship Men Softball (July 10-17 at Montegranaro, Italy) are:
Pool A: Croatia, Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Sweden
Pool B: Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Serbia
It was also announced that this years European Super Cup Men Softball (August 29-September 3) will be hosted in Italy.
Participating in the event is the National Team of New Zealand.
Lubomír Vrbenský, nicknamed 'Robocop', from the Czech Republic and Mike Stapleton from Australia were officially inducted into the ESF Hall of Fame as the Class of 2016.
As a pitcher, Lubomír Vrbenský recorded over 400 wins in 1991 through 2013 and retired at age 46.
He won 11 National Championship-titles, 12 ESF Cup medals and won the European Championship-title four times with the National Team of the Czech Republic.
Mike Stapleton, nicknamed 'Stapo', was the Head Coach of the National Men Softball Team of the Czech Republic when it won the European title in 1997, 1998 and 2008.
He was a softball ambassador, who also worked in New Zealand, Italy, Guatemala and Argentina.
Mike Stapleton passed away on July 5 suddenly last year on the final day of the World Championship Men's Softball in Saskatoon (Canada), two days before his 67th birthday.
He was in Canada as one of the Assistant Coaches of the National Team of Argentina.
In October last year, both were also inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Softball Federation (ISF), which of course now is the Softball Division of the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
The CEB already had announced the group alignments for the different European Cup-competitions in December, including the European Champions Cup.
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...Feiko Drost, Johan Brandsma & Pierfranco Leone...
(© Photos: Marco Stoovelaar (left) & Henk Seppen) |
Dutch champion Curaçao Neptunus will play in Group A of the European Champions Cup, meeting Fortitudo Bologna (Italy), Heidenheim Heideköpfe (Germany) and T&A San Marino (San Marino).
L&D Amsterdam Pirates will play in Group B and faces Kotlarka Praha (Czech Republic), Rimini (Italy) and Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg (Germany) in the preliminary round of the event, which will be held in Rimini and San Marino, May 31 through June 4.
On Saturday, the CEB handed out its annual baseball awards.
Evert-Jan 't Hoen, who guided Curaçao Neptunus to the Netherlands Championship-title, and won the European Champions Cup with the team, was named this years CEB Coach of the Year.
Croatian Tomaslav Ozimec was named CEB Umpire of the Year and Feiko Drost was named CEB Scorer of the Year.
Former Dutch umpire and current Umpire Commissioner Johan Brandsma was honored for his long contribution to European baseball with a CEB Career Award.
Brandsma was an international umpire in 1992-2014.
Also receiving a CEB Career Award were Italian umpires Marco Screti and Pierfranco Leone.
The award for the CEB Federation of the Year went to the Austrian Baseball Federation.
The ESF doesn't have these annual awards.
Next years Congress will be held in Serbia.
(February 14)
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