Netherlands names Women’s Softball National Team Head Coach aiming to qualify for Tokyo 2020

The Netherlands Baseball Softball Association (Koninklijke Nederlandse Baseball en Softball Bond, KNBSB) named Connie Clark as Head Coach of their Women’s Softball National Team for the 2019 season. The main goal of the American head coach will be to qualify the orange nation for next year’s Summer Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

Clark will lead The Netherlands, ranked No. 10 in the WBSC Women’s Softball World Rankings, in the European Softball Championship 2019, from 30 June to 6 July in Czech Republic and Poland, with the best six teams moving to the Africa Europe Softball Olympic Qualifier.

The eight-teams regional Olympic Qualifier, to be held in Utretch, The Netherlands, from 23-28 July, will also be played by the top two African nations. Only the winner of the Africa Europe Softball Olympic Qualifier will advance to Tokyo 2020.

Currently The Netherlands are the defending European Champions, after a 7-1 victory over host Italy in the final of the 2017 tournament, held in Bollate. Last year, the orange squad made the playoffs in the WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship in Chiba, Japan, but lost to Canada, 8-1, to finish in the eighth place.

Last year Clark acted as The Netherlands interim head coach during the Super 6 softball tournament, held in Hoofddorp, where her team ended in the fourth place. Before, Clark was the first Head Coach of the University of Texas, from 1995 to 2018.