(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball)
 Craig Montvidas and Francisco Cervelli named Coach of the Year in Italy
Nederlands
 GROSSETO (Italy) -
Craig Montvidas and Francisco Cervelli were named Coach of the Year in Italy for 2025.
On Saturday (January 24), they received their award on the second day of the annual Coach Convention, which this time is held in Grosseto.
Each year, the Comitato Nazionale Tecnici (CNT) organizes a Coach Convention, which not only has Italian coaches and National Team-coaches as speakers.
International coaches from abroad, including the American Major League, also are invited as speakers for the 3-day event.
Besides staging lectures on all aspects of coaching, the National Technical Committee also hands out awards to the best coaches of the previous year.
This year, Craig Montvidas and Francisco Cervelli were chosen as Coaches of the Year.
In 2025, both made their debut as Italian National Team Head Coach.
Dutch/American Craig Montvidas led the Italian National Women's Softball Team to the title during the European Championship.
In Czech capital Prague, Italy trailed 3-0 after two innings against the Netherlands.
Italy came back with two runs in the third inning, then tied the in the fifth.
The thrilling Final needed an extra inning to decide the outcome.
After the Netherlands stranded its tie-break runner on second base in the top of the eighth, Italy struck moments later.
In the bottom of the eighth, Elisa Cecchetti delivered a lead-off walk-off single, which enabled tie-break runner Isabella Dayton to score the winning run (4-3).
...Craig Montvidas & Francisco Cervelli...
...Coach of the Year...
(© Photo: Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball) |
Venezuelan Francisco Cervelli led the Italian National Baseball Team and he also guided his team to the Final of the European Championship.
In Rotterdam (Netherlands), the Italian Baseball Team also faced the Netherlands in the deciding game.
Just as the Softball Final, this also was a thriller.
Italy trailed 2-0 after the first inning, but came alongside via runs in the second and fourth inning.
The Netherlands reacted with three runs in its fourth at bat and added a run in the fifth to take a 6-2 lead.
The suspense returned in the sixth inning when Italy rallied with three runs to narrow the deficit to 6-5.
But that also was the final score and so, Italy had to settle for silver.
Montvidas and Cervelli won their Award a year after officially being named National Team-coach.
Montvidas was announced as new Head Coach on January 23 last year, Cervelli was appointed the next day, but was officially announced as new Manager on January 27.
Craig Montvidas is no stranger to international coaching and has a long, impressive and successful career.
He first played in the Dutch baseball big league in 1975-1984 for Giants Diemen, Kinheim and HCAW, was playing coach with the latter in 1980, 1983-1984 and solely coach in 1985.
Montvidas led the softball-coach of HCAW in 1981-1988 in the Dutch softball big league.
He then coached Bussolengo in Italy in 1989 and Twins Oosterhout in the Dutch softball big league in 1990-1994.
In 1997-1999, Montvidas first led the Netherlands National Softball Team as its Head Coach.
Next, he was the Head Coach of the Greek National Softball Team (2000-2001) and the British National Softball Team (2003-2007).
In Greece, Montvidas helped create a softball-program to prepare for the 2004 Olympic Games in capital Athens.
In this second stint as Head Coach of the Netherlands (2009-2014), Montvidas was very successful, as he led the Orange-squad to three consecutive unbeaten European titles (2009, 2011, 2013).
In the same period, the Netherlands climbed on the international ladder during three World Championships, finishing in sixth place in 2012 and 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Montvidas was the Head Coach of the professional Pennsylvania Rebellion in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF).
Montvidas then returned to Italy and again was the Head Coach of Bussolengo in 2018 and 2019, capturing the Italian Championship-title in both seasons.
In 2024, Montvidas was the Head Coach of Minot Honeybees in the inaugural season of the Nortwoods Collegiate Softball League.
Venezuelan/Italian Francisco Cervelli (Italian father, Venezuelan mother) is a former Major Leaguer.
As a catcher, he played in 13 Major League-seasons.
He made his debut in 2008 when he played in three games for New York Yankees for whom he played through 2014, winning the World Series in 2009.
Cervelli then played for Pittsburgh Pirates (2015-2019), Atlanta Braves (2019) and Miami Marlins (2020).
In 13 Major League-seasons, Cervelli played in 730 games and collected 605 basehits, including 41 homeruns.
In 2009 and 2017, Cervelli played for Italy during the World Baseball Classic.
In 2022, he was the Catching Instructor of San Diego Padres.
In February 2024, Cervelli was a member of the coaching-staff of Team Europe for the Global Baseball Games against Japan.
Current FIBS-President Marco Mazzieri then was the Manager of Team Europe.
(January 24)
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