It is with great pleasure that Baseball Queensland [BQ] announces Mr Shayne Watson as the new Athlete Development & High-Performance Manager for Baseball Queensland. Shayne has been a staff member of Baseball Queensland for 13 years and brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and insight to the role. Shayne has been the Junior Elite Pathway Manager for two years and has experienced considerable success, increasing the number of participants in our junior state programs and athlete development programs.
Shayne has designed and developed a program that will engage Baseball Queensland’s emerging, developing and high-performance male and female athletes in the redesigned Athele Development Program [ADP] /High Performance [HP] plan.
His experience also includes being part of the Brisbane Bandits, winning 4 consecutive ABL Championships and the Claxton Shield, as part of the coaching group lead by previous BQ High-Performance Manager and Brisbane Bandits Coach, David Nilsson.
Speaking on his appointment as the High-Performance Manager, Shayne states he is eager to begin a new chapter for BQ and spoke about the areas he is keen to grow for the State.
“I am looking forward to taking on this role. It will provide opportunities for our male and female elite level athletes to develop and strive for holistic outcomes. Not only to improve their sport-specific skills and knowledge but also for them to become future leaders within our sport.
Along with developing individual aspects within their game, our program will also be prioritizing athlete well-being and character building throughout. BQ coaches within the Pathway will also have opportunities to develop themselves as coaches and mentors throughout the Program.
We have several of our Pathway Programs commencing mid-year that will cater to a range of athletes from U13 to Open Women. Our newly formed State Performance Squad has already commenced in South East Queensland, with our North Queensland based athletes commencing mid-year. I have expanded this program to eight months catering for 25 identified athletes from U16 – Open Women. This direction provides more time on task and more opportuntites to develop athletes with access to a greater range of qualified and experienced coaches.”
Our Athlete Development Programs will commence mid-year fostering a Long-Term Athlete Development framework providing support and guidance for our young athletes coming through the Pathway.
As Baseball continues to grow in our state and we experience increased success with our regional and state teams, we are excited to continue expanding how the Athelete Development Program provides for baseball in our state and how BQ can look to increase numbers entering our High-Performance Pathway.
Baseball Queensland’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul Gonzalez said Shayne’s appointment will continue to build strong pathways for our Junior and Senior players through the high-quality programs Shayne is creating.
“As CEO of Baseball Queensland, I have been fortunate to watch the sport evolve over the past two years, particularly within the Athlete Development & High-Performance Programs. In 2017, David Nilsson, the then Baseball Queensland High Performance Manager, designed a Five-Tier success program in collaboration with Athlete Development Manager, Shayne Watson and the Queensland Academy of Sport. The focus of the program was to successfully achieve High Performance outcomes within the elitelevels of the game, with a focus on building the mental and physical skill sets of Queensland’s emerging and developing players.
Shayne’s experience working within all tiers of Baseball Queensland’s programs as well as the National program made him the perfect fit for the new program design.”
Through the support of Baseball Australia, the Queensland Academy of Sport, the coaches within the program and newly acquired partners, Pivotal Motion and Acceleration, Baseball Queensland’s vision of “Building a better future for baseball” looks as strong as ever.”
Shayne will take on the High-Performance Manager role immediately and will share his detailed outline of the High-Performance programs publicly next week through the Baseball Queensland website and social media sites.
9 Queensland players have been selected for the Team Australia squad selected to undertake a four-day camp in Canberra next month.
Lead by Team Australia Manager David Nilsson, the squad will undergo in-depth testing based at the Australian Institute of Sport from February 7-10.
Queenslanders make up over 25% of those selected for the squad featuring 9 out of 35 players selected. We want to congratulate the players below for being selected for the squad.
Ryan Battaglia
Andrew Campbell
Wade Dutton
Sam Holland
Mitch Nilsson
Ryan Searle
David Sutherland
Logan Wade
Aaron Whitefield
The camp will serve as the first opportunity for Premier12 preparation, baseball’s flagship international tournament.
“This camp will give us an invaluable opportunity to pass on as much information as we can about the Premier12 and the national team program as a whole,” David Nilsson said.
Team Australia will have its first chance at qualifying for Tokyo Olympic Games at this year’s Premier12, as Australia must finish above Chinese Taipei and South Korea to book a place to Tokyo2020.
We will be keeping a close eye on our Queenslanders as they prepare for the tournament.
As part of Baseball Queensland’s agreement with Saitama Prefecture High School Baseball Federation (Japan), Baseball Queensland will take a touring team to Japan from 5-14 July 2019.
The Saitama agreement has seen teams from Japan visit Queensland to play against our U18 QLD Bandits team since 2015. This long standing relationship provides our team with high quality competition in the lead up to our event which serves as a great preparation for our annual National Championships campaign.
In the interest of preserving the relationship with Saitama so future generation of Bandits players might benefit from playing this series of high quality games right before heading off to Nationals, it is imperative that we service the relationship by reciprocating with a tour to Japan. It is BQ’s intent to establish this tour to Japan as a key element in our Queensland Bandits program moving forward.
It is our intent to take the most competitive team available. We are aware that some players on our soon to be selected final team (for 2019 National Championships – 2018/19 QLD Bandits U18 team) may have commitments that render them unavailable for the tour next year (University etc). With this in mind the tour is currently open to any player named in the 2018/19 Squad that was announced after the 2018 U18 State Titles.
Early indications are that the tour will cost approximately $4000.00 per participant. For those interested in participating, you have ample time to start raising/earning funds to help cover the cost of your trip.
If you would like to express your interest or book your spot on this touring team for July 2019 please contact Shayne Watson – E:[email protected]
The Junior Elie Pathways Manager, Shayne Watson is pleased to announce the Coaching Staff’s for both Senior and Youth Women’s QLD Bandits State Team’s. “We have put together two great coaching staff’s to lead our Women’s Pathway into the future” says Watson. The return of Geoff Wade, Field Manager for Youth Women’s Program, has been at the forefront of our BQ Development Programs over previous years and leading initiatives to build on a sustainable future.
The Senior Program will be led by Lisa Norrie who is Assistant Director of Baseball Operations & Women’s High Performance and first female coach in the Australian Baseball League. Watson explains “I am excited to have Lisa in the State Program and continue our work together following a successful Brisbane Bandits season last year”.
Both programs will be commencing throughout December following Baseball Queensland first Women’s State Titles, 15th-18th December. “This is massive step forward for us” Watson continues, “This tournament will be exclusive to all BQ Female members”. For further information please contact your Region.
With Baseball Queensland’s commitment in developing and promoting a female pathway, there will be a seven week Strength and Conditioning commencing 7th November at Banister Park. Delivered by BQ S&C Staff, the purpose will be developing functional movement and general strength for all female athletes over the age of 12 years.
Far North Coast Baseball Association made history within their club by having teams selected to represent their region in the National tournaments across all three age divisions: Junior League, Little League and Senior League.
FNC Little League coach, Danny O’Sullivan, shared that “It’s certainly a big achievement for the club, we’ve been struggling for numbers in this area for a while so to have three teams go away is just great and the expectations of the coaches at all those tournaments were fairly conservative, so all the teams have exceed our expectations.”
Senior League coach, Brad Donald, said that the inclusion of the three FNC teams to Nationals paths the way for the future of baseball in the Far North Coast, “just for these kids to get there in the first place is a great achievement, a remarkable effort just being here. [They’re] playing against the best of the kids in Australia and Far North Coast is on that map in three age divisions.”
Baseball Queensland would like to acknowledge Far North Coast Baseball Association’s efforts and we wish to extend our congratulations to the region for their continued professionalism during the recent Australian Little League Championships.
David ‘Dingo’ Nilsson has undoubtedly had one of the most influential baseball careers in Australia. Nilsson was the first Major League Baseball All-Star player to come out of Australia during his time playing for the Milwaukee Brewers. Nilsson is the current Head Coach of the Brisbane Bandits and has been since 2014; during his time as Head Coach he has led the Bandits to three consecutive championship titles. David Nilsson was announced as the fulltime High Performance Manager at Baseball Queensland in July of 2017 and has built successful foundations within this program.
Chief Executive Officer for Baseball Queensland, Paul Gonzalez comments, “I have had the honour of competing on the diamond with David Nilsson and have watched him contribute to the game as, arguably, the greatest Australian player to ever compete in this game. Since David’s appointment as the High Performance Manager, he has helped restructure the programs into five tiers ensuring we not only capture our high performance athletes but we continue meeting the needs of all our athletes. The program’s measurables speak for themselves, with 9 players on the National Team in 2018 as well as three Claxton Shields in the ABL across 2016, 2017,2018. He has 15 players committed to colleges within the Junior Elite Program as well as made Australian history by including the first female coach in Australian Baseball League. David’s leadership has given Baseball Queensland the ability to grow the sport as well as build foundations for our people.”
Baseball Queensland sat down with David to get his comments on this momentous achievement.
David, it really is an incredible time to be a Queenslander, you’ve just won ‘Coach of the Year’ along with the ‘Queensland Greats Award’, what does it mean to you to represent Australia as the Manager of Team Australia?
“I grew up in Brisbane, Queensland, so you have to grow up here to understand what that really means, I’m a proud Queenslander and without the support of my family and all the other Queenslanders, whether they be players, coaches or staff, there is no way that I would be in this position and it makes it even more special that I am a Queenslander because the public understand what that means.”
Baseball Queensland would like to congratulate David on this wonderful achievement.
