Blease drafted in to help Great Britain under-18s

The club is delighted to announce that our General Manager, Ian Blease, has been called on to assist with Great Britain Baseball’s under-18 programme. He will join an all-new coaching team, headed up by Jonathan Rodriguez who replaced Will Lintern as Head Coach earlier in the year.

Blease, who will turn 40 later in the year, said that getting to work with the national teams had long been an ambition of his, but that it still came as a shock when he was asked. “It happened early last year, just before the first lockdown. I had spoken with Jonathan a few times previously and when he called me up to meet him for a pint I thought nothing of it. I went home that day with the biggest smile on my face.”

Blease will serve as Baseball Operations Manager for the u-18s and his duties will be more organisational than coaching at this stage, but he can’t wait to for the hard work to begin and sees opportunity to learn from some of the best coaches around. “Yeah, it’s going to be tough at the moment but we’re currently planning for the Euro Qualifiers in Sweden. They are due to take place in August, but obviously there is so much uncertainty due to COVID. The squad haven’t even been able to train together yet, but J-Rod (Jonathan Rodriguez) has done a phenomenal job of keeping the players engaged with regular Zoom meetings, online competitions etc. Fingers crossed we can get on a diamond soon, and that’s when the hard work will start to feel like it is paying off. To see this coaching staff in action, and the way the players respond to them can only be a good thing for my development as a coach, and in time I hope a lot more people will benefit from this.”