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Two GB Fastpitch coaches -- Under-16 Head Coach Jeremy Thomas (shown wearing #23) and Under-13 Assistant Coach Beth Perkins -- will head for the United States on 25 September to spend a week watching and learning from coaches at the softball programme at Florida State University.
The visit has been set up through an arrangement between the European Softball Federation (ESF) and the American Amateur Softball Association (ASA), and in particular by ASA Chief Executive Ron Radigonda.
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Two years ago, under the same programme, then GB Under-16 Head Coach Sarah Jones and Under-19 Assistant Coach Liz Knight spent a week learning from Team USA Head Coach Ken Eriksen and his staff at the University of South Florida.
Successful season
Florida State has one of America's most successful college softball programmes, and under Head Coach Lonni Alameda, the Seminoles have made five straight trips to the College Softball World Series. This year, the team finished with a record of 44-19 and won the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) title, earning Alameda her first ACC Coach of the Year award.
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American college softball teams are allowed a limited number of practice days and scimmage games each autumn, and Jeremy and Beth will be at FSU during the heart of their autumn season, observing both practices and games and able to ask questions and pick up information from Lonni Alameda and her staff.
After they return to the UK, the information and knowledge they have gleaned will be shared among all the coaches in the GB Fastpitch programme.
The British Softball Federation has provided some support to help defray the costs of the trip, but both GB coaches are funding the majority of it from their own pockets.
Just as young GB-based fastpitch players can hugely improve their chances of making an impact in international softball by playing college softball in the United States, so GB fastpitch coaches can add to their knowledge base and ability by getting a taste of US college coaching at the highest level -- and disseminating that knowledge to coaches back in the UK.