(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
  André Prins named Hitting Coach of German National Team
Nederlands
...André Prins coaching the Czech National Team...
...during the European Championship 2013...
...in 2013 in Prague...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
 HAMBURG (Germany) -
Wellknown Dutch softball-coach André Prins will begin another chapter in his already impressive coaching career.
Earlier this month, Prins was named Hitting Coach of the National Women Team of Germany, as announced by Udo Dehmel, the Head Coach of the team.
Dehmel stated that Prins is an outstanding expert in the offensive area, such as hitting and the 'short game'.
Dehmel had requested the German Federation for the addition of the Dutch coach to his staff.
André Prins has a long and successful career in coaching women softball teams.
After having been an international umpire in both baseball and softball through the eighties, he concentrated more and more on coaching softball.
He started coaching club-teams and through the years became a well-respected, knowledgeable and successful coach.
Besides coaching club-teams, Prins also got more and more involved in coaching and instructing national teams.
In the past, Prins has been the Head Coach of the National Women Softball Teams of Russia, France and the Czech Republic and also led the junior-squads of these countries.
Prins also has been a member of the coaching staff of the Netherlands National Team and led the Netherlands Junior Team for several years.
,,We're looking forward to this.
We're very happy that we were able to add such an extraordinary offense coach as André to our staff.
I'm convinced that he will help to improve our team to make the next step'', Udo Dehmel said, referring to the goals to bring German softball to a higher level and climbing on the European ranking.
...André Prins coaching France during...
...the European Championship 2011...
...in Italy...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Lena Först, the new Vice-President for Softball within the Deutscher Baseball & Softball Verband (German Baseball & Softball Federation), adds:
,,Our players and coaches not only will improve technically, but also mentally, learning from his experiences.
With his assistance we hope to make the next step at the elite-level and that's moving permanently into the top-6 in European softball.''
As mentioned, André Prins is a very successful coach.
Besides leading international teams, he also introduced softball-programs or helped them expand, including the Russian Softball Program, which he helped develop from 1995 through 2004.
Thanks to his contributions, Russian softball now belongs to the top of European softball.
...André Prins coaching the...
...Netherlands Juniors in 2009...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Prins led the program of the Netherlands Junior Team in 2005-2009 and guided the youth-teams to two European titles (Cadets in 2007, Juniors in 2008).
A big accomplishment came in 2009 when Prins led the Netherlands Under 16 Team to the silver medal in the first-ever Youth Softball World Championship Under 16 in the Czech Republic.
In 2011 and 2012, André Prins was the Head Coach of both the national and junior team of France.
With the French National Team, he finished in seventh place on the European Championship of 2011 in Italy.
The last two years, Prins was the Head Coach of the National Softball Team of the Czech Republic, with whom he won the bronze medal of the European Championship in front of a home crowd in Prague in 2013.
Besides all these activities, Prins, who always is very driven when he coaches, also heads two softball-academies in the Netherlands and Belgium and coaches the junior-team of Blue Angels.
Mirko Heid, Chairman of the DBV, said:
,,We want to do the best possible for softball.
We are happy that we have a strong voice again withing our office for softball in Lena Först.
It is up to the players to benefit from these chances.''
This Summer, July 19-25, Germany participates in the European Championship in Rosmalen (Netherlands).
In the preliminary round (Pool A), the German squad meets Sweden, Denmark, Israel and reigning champion Netherlands.
(March 13)
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