Brasschaat Braves Releases Part of Coaching Staff, a Review

The other day, the Dutch Baseball Hangout came with the news that the Brasschaat Braves have released a part of their coaching staff. What was written is true in general, but a few things need to be corrected.

First of all, my source. I wrote that is part of the Braves organization, but when he approached me, he had stepped down already.

Secondly, Hans Heyrman didn’t guide both the U12 and U15 teams to a championship in the Netherlands. First of all, he was a youth player coordinator and secondly, he guided the U12 team to a championship.

One question that I didn’t ask the chairman of the Braves was “Why were these coaches released?” Eventually, I asked this question yesterday and this is what the chairman had to say:

“Why the dismissal?

How people spend their leisure time has changed significantly in recent years. It’s clear that the way things are done today is different from, say, 20 years ago—this is true across all sports. Finding motivation has become difficult; you have to constantly find ways to engage and stimulate the players. That’s the approach we’ve taken with our youth teams recently, and it has been successful.
In the case of the BBG group, we reached a threshold we simply couldn’t cross. Or perhaps, after all these years, the magic had simply faded. It certainly wasn’t a lack of knowledge—each of the coaches involved was a deep well of expertise—but, over time, that alone proved insufficient for this particular group. Hence the decision to bring in someone else.”

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