(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Marco Stoovelaar & Henk Seppen)
  Craig Montvidas named Head Coach Pennsylvania Rebellion
Nederlands
 WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania (USA) -
Craig Montvidas has been named the new Head Coach of Pennsylvania Rebellion, one of the teams in this years professional National Pro Fastpitch (NPF).
With this, Montvidas will make his coaching debut in this American professional softball-league.
...Craig Montvidas...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Since November 2008, Craig Montvidas was the Head Coach of the Netherlands National Softball Team, a position he held through the end of last year.
In his six full seasons with the Dutch National Team, Montvidas led the Orange squad to three consecutive European titles, remaining unbeaten during the European Championships in 2009 (Valencia, Spain), 2011 (Ronchi Dei Legionari, Italy) and 2013 (Prague, Czech Republic).
Besides being the Head Coach of the Dutch National Team, Montvidas also was the Supervisor of all National Junior Teams since October 2009.
Also, in this period, the Dutch Team climbed from twelfth place to a tie for fifth place on the world ranking.
In 2010, the Dutch Team qualified for the Play-Offs during the World Championship in Caracas (Venezuela), finishing in eighth place.
Two years later, in 2012 (Whitehorse, Canada), the Orange Team again qualified for the Play-Offs and this time ended up in sixth place.
Last year, playing in front of a home crowd in Haarlem, the Netherlands Team reached the top-8 for the third time in a row.
The Dutch Team then defeated China in the first game of the Play-Offs, then faced Australia in the next match-up.
The Dutch Team lost that game to finish in a tie for fifth place with Chinese Taipei.
The International Softball Federation doesn't schedule a game to decide fifth and sixth place during a World Championship, but instead uses a statistical result to decide the ranking.
In the preliminary round, the Dutch Team had lost in extra innings from Taipei and therefore was placed in sixth place.
Would the Dutch Team have finished in a tie with a team from another group, it could have been awarded fifth place based on the overall record in the preliminary round.
But in reality, as no official game for fifth place was played, the Dutch Team and Taipei simply shared fifth place.
Reaching fifth place was the criteria for the Netherlands Olympic Committee to continue its funding for the coming years.
But as the Dutch Team was ranked in sixth place in the official final standings, the funding was stopped.
The Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) appealed the decision for various reasons.
The appeal is still under consideration.
Montvidas has a long career in coaching softball.
Before being named Head Coach of the Netherlands Softball Team in late 2008, Montvidas already had served as a coach of the Dutch squad earlier.
In 1987, he was a member of the coaching staff, which was led by American Head Coach Diane Schumacher.
Ten years later, Montvidas returned to the Orange squad and was its Head Coach in 1997-1999.
...Craig Montvidas coaching during...
...last years World Championship...
...in Haarlem (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
As a club coach, Montvidas was the Head Coach of the softball-team of HCAW in Bussum for eight years (1981-1988).
He then led the Italian squad of Bussolengo for one season (1989), before returning to the Netherlands.
In the following five years, Montvidas was the Head Coach of Twins (1990-1994) and was its Technical Coordinator in 1995.
After his period with Twins, Montvidas served in his first stint as Head Coach of the National Team.
Hereafter, he practiced and coached with the National Softbal Team of Greece in 2000 and 2001 to prepare the squad for the Olympic Games of 2004 in Athens (Greece).
He then continued international coaching in England and was the Pitching Coach and Assistant Coach of the National Team of Great Britain in 2003.
Next, he was the Head Coach of the British squad in 2004-2007, before becoming the Head Coach of the Dutch Team for the second time in November 2008.
Initially, Montvidas played baseball in the team of the University of Hartford in the USA, then came to the Netherlands to play baseball for big league-team Giants Diemen in 1975.
It was the start of a long stay in the Netherlands.
After Giants relegated, he played for Kinheim in 1976, but returned to Giants Diemen when it made its comeback in the highest league in 1977.
Montvidas played for the Diemen-squad through 1979, then went on to play for HCAW in Bussum in 1980-1984.
At HCAW, while playing, Montvidas also was the team's Head Coach in 1980, then went on to coach the women softball-team of the Bussum-club in 1981.
While still playing baseball for HCAW, he kept on coaching the softball-team.
In 1983, 1984 and 1985, he again was named Head Coach again of the baseball-team and in these three years, he combined coaching of both the baseball and softball-team.
After settling in the Netherlands, the American born and raised Montvidas went on to become a producer of the NOS-TV News.
In the eighties, Montvidas organized the successful baseball- and softball-camps of Pro-Motion and created an indoor-competition in Amsterdam.
He also conducted clinics in China, Japan, Italy, the Czech Republic and Botswana.
This season, Pennsylvania Rebellion is one of the five teams playing in the professional National Pro Fastpitch (NPF).
The other four are Akron Racers (Akron, Ohio), Chicago Bandits (Rosemont, Illinois), Dallas Charge (Dallas, Texas) and USSSA Pride (Kissimmee, Florida)
Akron Racers is the oldest team in the league and began play in 1999, while Dallas Charge will make its debut this season.
Last year, USSSA Pride won its second consecutive championship title.
The team swept Akron Racers in two games to win the Cowles Cup.
Pennsylvania finished in fourth and last place with a 9-39 record.
Pennsylvania Rebellion plays its home games at Consol Energy Park in Washington (near Pittsburgh).
The multi-functional complex is also used by the baseball-teams of Washington Wild Things (professional independent Frontier League), California University of Pennsylvania and Trinity High School.
Pennsylvania Rebellion announced the naming of Montvidas on January 16.
In a reaction, Montvidas stated: ,,I consider it a prestigious honor that the Rebellion has asked me to coach its team this season.
The past two summers, I had the opportunity to have see several NPF games.
The talent level is extremely high and the athletes are extremely dedicated both on and off the field.
The Rebellion ownership has already shown me their professionalism during our numerous meetings.
I am very impressed and eager to get started.''
General Manager Steven Zavacky added in the announcement:
,,We are thrilled to have Craig as the head coach of the Pennsylvania Rebellion.
We believe the international experience Montvidas brings makes him the perfect candidate.
He has established himself as one of the top international coaches in the world today, and we know he'll guide this team to be the best possible competitors each day.''
Pennsylvania Rebellion opens its 48-game regular season schedule on Friday, May 29 at home vs. Chicago Bandits.
The five teams will meet each other in a total of 12 games.
After the regular season, the NPF Championship Series will be played in Hoover (Alabama) from August 14-18.
National Pro Fastpitch was formerly the Women's Pro Softball League, which was founded in 1997.
Since November 2002, the league is known as the NPF.
(January 19)
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