CZ: Women’s national team starts from the beginning
European Women’s Baseball Championship took place in 2019 for the first time when France, Netherlands, and Czech Republic met in French Rouen. First year showed there are Czech women interested in playing baseball, despite majority of them having a packed schedule with their softball seasons.
Next championship will be played on 3rd of August, once again in France, however, this time in Montpelier. There were supposed to be five teams in 2020, but Poland decided to opt out, citing the financial situation. The fourth team to join the championship is Great Britain.
For Czech Republic, the road to the championship starts this weekend, when players interested in joining the national team meet at Tempo Praha for opened try-outs. Unlike in 2019, team manager Richard Kania doesn’t want to rely solely on softballers, as he admitted himself. “Since majority of our players was recruited from softballers, the national calendar schedule was very limited. Due to Covid-19, softball started later than baseball and they tried to catch up with the season. Players were spread thin due to club duties and they were unable to participate in the planned actions. This is one of the reasons why we decided to start from the beginning this year. First steps are the try-outs. The first round will be held in Prague, on Sunday 28th of November from 9 o’clock. The make up try-outs were set on 4th of December, once again in Prague, this time in new facilities in Ruzyne. We would like to address, with help from ČBA, players from different sports (like handball, volleyball, etc.) who are perhaps close to finishing their careers, but still want to do something.”
Czechs will have a tough road to the first win at the international tournament, as players from other participating countries have opportunities to play regular baseball, be it locally, or nation-wide, as is the case with the newcomer from Great Britain. Team doesn’t want to underestimate preparations, as Kania continues, and they want to focus on pitching and individual game skills, which were the biggest issues at the first championship. “Starting from January, we would like to train once in two weeks in Ruzyne, in smaller groups of 6-8 players to give players appropriate and instant feedback. During the season we want to hold a training camp (and play games against U15 team) and another training camp closer to the EC,” team manager reveals the plans.
For now the trainings will be held in Prague, however, the national team is not against moving them to different cities, if necessary. “Trainings will be held in Prague for now, but, depending on where the majority of the players come from, we will think about options to train away from Prague as well.”
With try-outs this weekend, we can soon expect first names on the national team roster. Only thing left is to hope that the preparation for the European Championship will not be limited by the pandemic and women’s team will have opportunity for adequate training before the important tournament.
