What Awaits Women’s Baseball in Czech Republic?

This article was published in Triple Play magazine which featured women’s baseball. The magazine became the first printed baseball magazine in the country.

Announcment that Czech Republic will take part in 2019 European Women’s Baseball Championship probably surprised a number of fans. We talked to Adéla Koubová and Pavla Mikšová on how they got to baseball, what the tryouts looked like, what it was like to wear their country’s jersey for the first time, but also where is the women’s baseball headed after 2019 Championship.

Women’s Baseball European Championship

Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) grabbed the chance to promote women’s baseball in 2019 and announced first European Women’s Baseball Championship which would take place in Rouen, France. The winner of the tournament had guaranteed spot in the World Championship in Tijuana. In the end, three countries signed up, Czech Republic being one of them.

In January 2019, ČBA (Czech Baseball Association) announced an open tryout for the national team, led by Jake Rabinowitz and Scotty Mulhearn.
“There were about 20 players there at the beginning, some left and new arrived,” remebers Petra Mikšová who represented Czech Republic at the European Championship. “The biggest issue for some of the players, who were interested in baseball, was that they were also part of junior softball national team, so they were not allowed to participate once the news came out. After the dates of the Championship were announced, several more players had to leave, since their softball teams wouldn’t allow them to participate, as they would have to leave during the Czech Women’s Softball Cup and the teams just wouldn’t have enough players.”

As Pavla recalls, from softball Extraliga, only two players from Tempo Praha got a permission to participate in the tryouts. “The team that went to the European Championship was basically made out of the players from the second softball league, and girls who don’t play anymore, but started again just to be able to help out the national team, as most of us played baseball when we were younger. Back in the day we couldn’t choose whether we could continue playing baseball or switch to softball.”

She also remembers how nervous, but also proud she felt, before her first pitch in the national team. “It was a great honor for me to represent Czech Republic and that I could be a part of the first Women’s European Championship. When I stepped on the mound for the first time I was terribly anxious. I was never able to play for the national team and for the past couple of years, I was only able to participate in the baseball as a trainer.”

Czech team at European Championship made a first step to create conditions for women’s baseball in the country, as affirmed by ČBA. “We wanted to go in the direction, which seemed, from the point of view of the association, as the most plausible. We slightly left out the part, where the game is played at lower levels, but we thought, that the players will be motivated to start with the baseball,” said the Petr Ditrich, chairman of ČBA.

This strategy seemed to have sow the first seeds for success, as there were plenty of voices from the players, who wanted to continue playing baseball after the European Championship.

Despite two losses, Czechs were praised for their performance on the European scene. “After the Europe we heard words of praise from other trainers, they didn’t believe these were our first competitive baseball games. We played well in the field and at bat, but we lacked something on the mound at the beginning,” reviews her experience Pavla.

Final game of the European Championship was played on 3rd of August 2019 at 14:00, in which France beat Netherlands 5-2.

Unusual way to baseball

Some time back, Milujeme Baseball brought you an interview with Adéla Koubová, who started to play baseball during her stay in the United Kingdom. She played her first season for Richmond Squires in 2015 where she earned trainer’s award. “In my case, this meant that I didn’t miss a single training and I lived with baseball,” remebers Adéla.

At the end of summer 2015, Adéla returned to Czech Republic to continue her studies. She contacted ČBA and Eagles Praha, asking about opportunities to join their trainings, but they suggested she should play softball instead. Between 2016 and 2018 Adéla kept returning to UK during the summer break, where she played for Richmond.

“Some time later (in 2018) I contacted Kotlářka [Praha] and went to train with them two times, but it just wasn’t it. Not only I couldn’t play, but the team was made out of player who weren’t training that much anymore, so there also weren’t many opportunities for me.”

Despite the pause caused by returning back home Adéla didn’t give up on baseball and she returned back to London. “In 2019 in went for internship to London, where I started to play for London Mets. Thanks to this period I could once again play and live baseball.”

Rules of British Baseball Federation allow the mixed teams in adult categories. This rule helped to create a new women’s baseball league in the UK, which will start in 2021 and it also eased the creation of the national team, which will compete in Women’s European Championship in 2022. “We were only two femaly players in Mets, but it didn’t matter. In the summer we represented London Mets during the women’s baseball tournament in Bristol, where there were around 20 players from all around the Britan, who, similar to myself, love baseball,” described Adéla another event organized by Women’s Baseball UK.

“It was a great day, where we shared a common passion for baseball even if it was amateur play, we put our hearts into it. Tournament was organized and supported by Amanda Hocking, who managed to push for the women’s baseball support from British Baseball Federation this year.”

What is happening with women’s baseball in Czech Republic?

The ČBA rules allow mixed teams only till U13 category (or U15 with explicit exception). For many players who played for the national team this meant returning back to competitive softball. Only few months before the first Covid-19 case, there was an attempt to give women opportunity to continue in baseball.

“In the winter few of us tried to push to be allowed to continue, or play games with boys, however, in the end it came to nothing, probably from the both sides. Later, Covid pandemic started and I can say for myself that once the [softball] competitions started, we had enough to catch up on as it was,” explains their attempts after the Championship Pavla.

“The things are getting back in motion thanks to stimule from Adéla,” added Pavla.

“After returning to Czech Republic at the beginning of summer I decided to contact ČBA and ask what were my options if I wanted to play baseball,” Adéla clarified the situation.

“Once again, the first response I got wasn’t very positive, but after two weeks or so, I got contacted by Petr Ditrich, who had an idea and asked me to contact him. And that’s how we slowly started to build the idea of women’s baseball. Along with Pavla we had several meetings where we discussed how we could approach women’s baseball and its promotion.”

When the schedule for 2022 European Championship was announced, it was official that Czech Republic will travel to Montpellier, where they will face three more teams. As a part of the preperation for the tournament, the players wanted to get more opportunities to play baseball.

“I can say that we, as the players, asked to be able to play in the leagues with men, so it only depends whether this will be approved.”

This request was affirmed by ČBA chairman Petr Ditrich, “we are going to change the rules, so that the women can play with men.”

Czech national team also announced new coaching staff for the upcoming Championship, with Richard Kania as the head coach, who will be in charge of setting the direction of the national team. As Petr Ditrich said, they would like to give more players an opportunity to join the national team.

“It is great to think I will be able to play baseball in the Czech Republic, even if I was happy to travel to the UK andone of the reasons was baseball,” reacted Adéla to the new rules.

New coaching staff also plans to prepare their players with a series of exhibition games. The head coach Richard Kania confirmed that if the situation permmits it, he would like to play games against U15 teams. Due to pandemic restriction, it is difficult to train together or have an open tryout, so it is likely that the core of the team will remain the same. As the head coach notes, the 2019 team had a great chemistry he could build on. If the government eases the restrictions the open tryouts could happen in April.

Kania would also like to avoid the situation that happened before the previous Championships and for this reason there is an attempt to find a common ground with the Czech Softball Association on strenghtening both women’s baseball and softball. The news about the changes gives a lot of hope to the players who would like to play baseball rather than softball. These steps can also help to increase the popularity of baseball in the Czech Republic and increase the player base.

As the last part, there are a couple of words from Adéla for the women and girls who would like to play baseball.
“It is nonsense that girls can’t play baseball in the Czech Republic and I believe it will soon change. Not only will the women represent the Czech Republic in the baseball at European Championship, but I hope that women’s baseball will become more popular in the country and it will take the place that belongs to it, right next to softball and men’s baseball.”

Pavla also shared her message.
“To all girls, who want to play baseball in the Czech Republic, I’d like to say, don’t get discouraged by the words of some baseball players and your surrounding who claim girls can’t play baseball and that it’s the game only for boys. If you believe in yourself, you can do anything.”