Baseball Russia and Softball Russia, in partnership with the Russia’s Development Fund for Baseball and Softball, will be organising a 5-day series of testing and training of young Russian athletes in the Moscow region over the next few days, in order to identify talent and attract new candidates for Russia’s Baseball and Softball National Teams across all age categories.
Team Russia is ranked No. 34 in the IBAF World Baseball Rankings and No. 9 in Europe.
The training will also target baseball and softball coaches, in order to further grow the technical knowledge and teachings of building elite baseball and softball teams and athletes.
Alexander Nizov, a former professional baseball player, Russia National Baseball coach and current General Director of the Development Fund for Baseball and Softball, will lead the evaluations supported by the baseball and softball National Federations.
Nizov has invited Bill Krejci—former Southwestern Community College (SCC) baseball coach in Creston, Iowa (USA) and current SCC Sports Director—and Bob Protexter—who has been involved with Russia’s National Baseball Teams in international competitions over the past 20 years—to help evaluate the state of the baseball and softball in Russia and help to outline the strategic-plan to develop the bat-and-ball sports further within Russia.
Most recently in international competition, Team Russia finished tied for 9th place (out of 14) in its first-ever Under-12 IBAF Baseball World Cup in 2013, which was held in Taipei City, Taiwan. Russia’s National Baseball Team will compete in the 12-team 2014 European Baseball Championship, which will be co-hosted by the Czech Republic and Germany. Russia will compete in the Czech pool.
Team Russia’s softballers finished 4th (out of 19) in the 2013 Women’s Softball European Championship and will participate in the 2014 XIV ISF Women’s Softball World Championship in Haarlem, Netherlands this summer.
Schedule of Team Russia Baseball and Softball Testing and Evaluation Series:
13 March – Testing and evaluations for Russian National Team players
14 March – Coaches seminar for Softball
15 March – Coaches seminar for Baseball
16 March – Coaches seminar for Baseball
17 March – Testing and evaluations for Russian National Team players
18 March – Meeting with past athletes, coaches and supporters of Russian baseball
