Szentendre Sleepwalkers – with new coach for a giant step
Wednesday February 3rd, 2010 | Brecsi Tags: szentendre sleepwalkers
From March Szentendre Sleepwalkers will be strengthened by an American coach. Anthony Bennett has baseball as his profession: since 1995 he has been professional player and coach around the world. He has a degree in Physical Education, studied sport medicine, nutrition, exercise physiology and rehabilitation at San Francisco City College and West Valley College in Saratoga, California. After college he was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers, spent several years at different teams in the Minor Leagues, and also in Australia and Europe. He worked at clubs in the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland where he also coached the U18 national team. He played an important role in making Draci Brno one of the top teams in Europe, and was the only coach up to this day to lead a second division team into the final four of the Czech National Cup. He spent his last season at Nekketsu Making in the Japaneese Industrial League.
Anthony’s motto: “Winning is not everything, it’s the only thing”. In his former teams he was known as a confident, charismatic leader with attention to his players, and a good sense of motivation and communication with any age group. Though he does not speak Hungarian, being a certified teacher of English as a foreign language he may be helpful at the practices to improve the language skills of the players as well.
In Szentendre he will be the head coach of the senior, junior and softball team, and the Sleepwalkers can count on him as a player as well. He will also be responsible for recruiting, developing talents, and promoting the game. Besides the Sleepwalkers he will be involved in several programs of MOBSSZ (National Federation), sharing his knowledge not only in Szentendre but the whole Hungarian baseball community.
Anthony Bennett has signed an agreement with the Sleepwalkers for the coming season so far but both parties are open to a co-operation for a longer term.
In March you will find a longer interview with him on the website of the team (www.sleepwalkers.hu). If you have any questions you would like to ask him leave a comment here before the end of February!
Nagyon jó hír, hogy újabb nemzetközi tapasztalatokkal rendelkező szakember tevékenykedhet Magyarországon. Engem két témakör érdekelne: mesélhetne egy kicsit a Draci Brnónál eltöltött évekről (leginkább arról, hogy milyen utat kell végigjárnia egy Európa élmezőnyéhez igyekvő csapatnak) és a japán industrial league-ről (hol helyezkedik el a japán profi és félprofi bajnokságok rendszerében, lehet-e onnan továbblépni a profikhoz, dolgozott-e ismertebb játékosokkal stb).