 Karen Marr new Pitching Coach Dutch Softball Team
Nederlands
 NIEUWEGEIN (Neth.) -
Karen Marr is the new Pitching Coach of the Dutch National Women Softball Team, the Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) announced on Wednesday, December 1.
She will arrive in the Netherlands in the first week of January, then joins the national squad when it will conduct its first practice session of the new season.
In 2009 and 2010, Nancy Evans was the Pitching Coach of the Dutch squad, while Tracy Bunge also was with the team in November and December of last year, as well as during the World Championship in Venezuela.
...Karen Marr... |
With the addition of Karen Marr, Dutch National Team Manager Craig Montvidas added an experienced coach in his staff, who will work with the pitchers and catcher of the national team in the upcoming months.
In 2011, the Dutch National Softball Team is defending its European title during the European Championship, which will be held in July in Italy in the Friuli Region, which is close to Venice.
From 2004 through May of 2010, the Australian-born Karen Marr was the Pitching Coach of the University of Louisville in Kentucky in the USA.
A wellknown school, which is playing in the strong Big East Conference with its softball-team.
With the Cardinals, the softball-team of the University of Louisville, Karen Marr had an important part in their successes of the last years.
In that period, the team climbed as high as fourteenth place in the national Top-25 when it finished with an 48-11 record overall in 2009.
In the years that Marr was active in Louisville, eight of her pitchers were named to All-Big East or All-Conference Teams.
Furthermore, the team reached the NCAA Tournament in six consecutive years and her pitchers set a school-record by striking out 457 batters in 2005.
In the record-setting season of 2009, catcher Melissa Roth and pitcher Kristen Wadwell were named All-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
Roth also was named Big East Player of the Year, while Wadwell won 41 games to finish in second place nationwide.
Before coming to America, Karen Marr was the National Battery Development Coach of the Australian Softball Federation.
Between 1994 and 2001, she was the pitching coach of several New South Wales State Team, leading seven of them to a national championship.
Besides that, she also was affiliated with several national Australian teams.
In 1999, Karen Marr was the battery coach of the national Under-19 team (Juniors) that then participated in the World Junior Championship in Taiwan.
Three years later, in 2002, Marr participated with the same team in the Canada Cup, which always has a strong field of participants, then was the Assistant Coach in 2004 of the National Australian Team that participated in the World University Games in Plant City (Florida).
In 2000, Karen Marr worked as coach for the National Chinese Olympic Team and in 2003, she also coached at West Coach Academy in Vancouver (Canada).
Louisville Head Coach Sandy Pearsall said: ,,When you look at what our pitching staff has done the past years, you can definitely see the impact that Karen Marr has had on our program''.
Karen Marr also is a lecturer for the Australian Federation and also conducted clinics for Higher Ground Softball, which is run by wellknown American coach Bobby Simpson.
(December 1)
|
