OTTAWA-With the 2012 baseball season now behind us and a new year, and season not too far off in the distance, Baseball Canada will be releasing the Top 12 stories of 2012.
Many great stories have come out of 2012 from grassroots all the way to the success of the National Teams.
Beginning today, Baseball Canada will release a story on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week leading up to the story of the year being announced on December 21st.
For today, we’ll start with the 12th top story of 2012!
#12 – Les Smeyers is the 20, 000th coach!
In the early part of 2012, Baseball Canada realized that they were reaching a milestone. This was a milestone unlike most that you find in the sport of baseball as Baseball Canada was nearing the number 20,000, as in 20,000 coaches to register on Baseball Canada’s On-line coaching certification system.
“We wanted to do something to recognize this milestone and bring awareness to our on-line coaching system,” said Baseball Canada’s Kelsey McIntosh back in March. “The fact that 20,000 coaches have taken advantage of this great resource speaks volumes for how valuable this coaching tool has become which is very positive for the future of baseball in Canada.”
The lucky individual to become the 20,000th coach was Les Smeyers from Vaughan, Ontario.
For Les, he, like a lot of parents began his involvement with coaching when he registered his son for baseball with the City of Vaughan Minor Baseball Association.
“Over the years, I gradually became more involved with the coaching staff and the teams,” he said. “It brought back memories of the competitive spirit I had when I was growing up and the importance of being part of a sports team.”
Prior to the 2012 baseball season, Les and members of his coaching staff were discussing coaching certification and what they could do to improve as coaches and make the baseball experience better for the kids.
“Part of the certification process was to complete the online NCCP.baseball.ca course,” explained Les. “I found the ethics part to be eye opening. The strategy and skills modules were very useful in helping me understand things I already knew or thought I knew.”
Les is a prime example of someone who has seen the benefit from formal coach training which improves the experience for him as a coach and for the players he coaches.
For becoming the 20,000th coach, Les was given a prize package that included a Baseball Canada hat, shorts, t-shirt and sweatshirt.
Since Les singed up to use the coaching certification system in March, another 3,192 coaches have registered on-line at NCCP.baseball.ca.
In fact, coach education for baseball in Canada has become so important that over 10,000 coaches took an on-line initiation course, completed a coaching clinic or had a game or practice evaluation in 2012.
“It’s great to see so many coaches and minor baseball associations across Canada making coach education a priority,” added McIntosh. “Hopefully we’ll be celebrating more milestones of this nature in the near future.”
