Great Britain Head Coach and General Manager announce their resignations

Stephan Rapaglia

Alan Smith and Stephan Rapaglia have announced their resignations as General Manager and Head Coach of the Great Britain baseball team, which they have taken to a #2 ranking in Europe and to impressive performances at the IBAF Baseball World Cup last September. Their departure from the National Team programme will take effect on Sunday, February 28, the date of the upcoming British Baseball Federation AGM.

Smith and Rapaglia have released a statement addressed to AGM delegates, who will represent Federation clubs and teams at the meeting, and to all members of the British Baseball community, urging them to retain a competitive GB Senior Team as a key fiscal and developmental priority. The two men argue that to do so is both affordable and essential to the long-term future of baseball in this country.

However, their statement is not restricted to matters surrounding the Great Britain programme. It also highlights the current “fractured” state of the UK baseball community and urges Federation voters to “make the right choices” at the AGM.

You can read the full statement on the British Baseball website at britishbaseball.org, and the future of the national baseball team is being discussed over on Matt Smith’s BaseballGB blog.

Both men have served in their posts for six baseball seasons, 2004-2009 inclusive. Alan Smith accepted the position of General Manager on 9 November 2003. Stephan Rapaglia’s appointment as Performance Director and Head Coach was announced on 2 March 2004; he arrived in the UK in early April 2004 to begin his hands-on work with the GB programme.

Alan Smith

Before Smith and Rapaglia took over the programme, the GB baseball team had spent several years clinging on to a position near the bottom of the European A Pool. But the team finished seventh at the 2005 European Championships and then won the silver medal at the 2007 Championships, qualifying for last year’s IBAF World Cup for the first time in the modern era and putting up competitive performances in that tournament against some of the top teams in the world.

One of the issues at stake in the current debate over the future of the programme is that the GB team has a chance to participate in an expanded World Baseball Classic in 2013 if it can remain competitive in this summer’s European Championships in Germany.

Links

A round-up and reflection on GB’s World Cup campaign and a summary of the issues surrounding the team’s future.

This article was first posted on britishbaseball.org.

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