Doninik Buder (GER):

Buder - a former German League Outfielder - has been in charge of the German U12 National Team for a while. He has led the country´s youngest ballplayers in multiple European and World Championships. In 2023 at the WBSC U13 World Cup, Buder´s team finished in 9th place, ahead of the second European entry Czech Republic, as well as ahead of strong Australian and New Zealand teams.

His coaching accolades include European titles in the U12 category in 2022, 2023 and 2024.  So he has gone an unprecented back-to-back-to-back. Yet the 2024 title was potentially the most important and satisfying.

Germany dominated the group phase, beating Ukraine, France and the Czech Republic. The best was still to come, as Buder´s squad dominated Italy 10-0 in the semi final and shutting out the neighbour country´s Netherlands team 5-0 in the final.

To top it off, the tournament was held in Paderborn, Germany. For Buder this meant not only winning in his home country, but at his own blub and the field he competed on himself in countless games during his playing and club coaching days.

 

Guglielmo Trinci (ITA):

Trinci was the first year Manager for the Italian U18 National Team at the WBSC Europe U18 Championships held in Regensburg, Germany, in July.

In the 2024 U18 Euros, Italy kicked it off versus Israel, coming out on top by a score of 7-0. After a 10-0 drubbing of Austria, a 14-0 win versus Croatia, followed by a tight 2-1 win against the Spanish team, setting up a duell with hosts Germany for first place in the group. Trinci´s team started strong and never got into too much trouble, beating Germany 7-3. While Germany rolled over the Netherlands 6-1 in the semis, Italy scratched and clawed to a 6-5 nailbiter win against the Great Britain team, setting up a re-match with Germany in the final. Again, Italy scored first and never relinquished the lead, celebrating the European Title with a 3-1 victory.

It was Italy´s first European Title in the U18 category since 2015, pushing the country´s total to 15.

 

Marco Corazza (ITA):

Corazza managed the Italian Blind Baseball in international competition for the first time in 2024.

Before he was honoured as the 2023 LIBCI Coach of the Year and served on the Blind Baseball National Team staff before succeding Fabian Azzaro. He is also the Roma All Blinds manager.

In the 2024 Blind Baseball International Cup - held in London UK at the end of September - he led his team to a second place finish, the highest finish of four european entries in the 8-team field.

Italy kicked off the weekend with a 4-0 win over China, tying Cuba 6-6 and the Netherlands 7-2 in in the preliminary round.

In the semi-final Corazza´s team overcome Pakistan 2-0 before a re-match with Cuba in the final. After tying the Carribean Country in their first contest, Italy came up short by the smallest of margins, losing 1-2 to claim silber. Italy outhit the Cuban team in the final.