Past Editions:
12th EBCA Convention
2015 LISBON (P)

SPEAKERS

André Lachance

Baseball Canada

André Lachance has been working for Baseball Canada since 2001. He is managing baseball operations and is also the head coach of the Women Baseball National Team.
Coaches training and Long Term Athlete Development are also par of his responsibilities.
On top of his Baseball Canada duties, André is a teacher at the University of Ottawa.
Andre has been a board member of the Candian Coaches Association an organization for which he led several Canadian Sports for Life conventions, looking into competitions structures. He took part in the implementation of the Long Term Athlete Development, the redesigning of competitions structures and other similar projects.
He sets himself apart from the crowd with his ability to perceive with a different eye various aspects of sport with a non-traditional approach.

Jeff Krushell

MLB International

 In 1994 Jeff Krushell graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Kinesiology from the University of Calgary. While attending school he worked as a Strength and Conditioning Coach with the varsity teams as well as professional and nationally ranked athletes.

It was here he started his first company Performax Strength and Conditioning. Moving to Edmonton in 1996 he worked as the Director of Athletic Development at the Edmonton Sport Institute, training athletes from many sports and developing camps and school programs that still exist today. Late in 1997 Jeff moved on to the Royal Glenora Club of Edmonton as Director of Sport Performance Development overseeing the strength and conditioning for the Elite Athlete Training Center.

In February of 1998, Jeff was hired by the Toronto Blue Jays as the Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coordinator where he stayed for two full seasons before moving to the Major League Club in 2000. Here, Jeff oversaw the entire strength and conditioning program of the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball organization. Also, during this time he became very involved with Baseball Canada and Major League Baseball International promoting strength and conditioning to athletes and coaches.

During the spring of 2003 Jeff stepped down from the Blue Jays to pursue a private business “Krush Sport Performance”.Jeff Krushell, owner of Krush Performance, consults with Major League Baseball International overseeing the Strength and Development program on a global scale.

Jeff has consulted with the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL and works with a handful of elite athletes at his home base in Edmonton. Also, as the Director of Human Sport Performance, promoting cutting edge sport science and drug free sport,Jeff Krushell has developed a professional network of sport contacts that includes Athletes, General Managers, Coaches and Sport Scientists from every discipline, every level of sport and reaching all around the world.

Les McTavish

Vauxhall Academy

 Les McTavish along with his wife Kim and 3 children (Shaye 2003, Brennan 2005, Teya 2009) call Lethbridge, AB home. McTavish grew up in Alberta before taking his successful Team Alberta playing career to Washington State University in Pullman, WA. The Cougs compete in the National Powerhouse Pac 12 Conference and over 4 years (1997-2000) at WSU McTavish finished 2nd all-time in career appearances as well as 3 time honorable mention all-academic team. Following McTavish’s successful playing career he has been full-time in baseball as a coach, scout, administration, director and manager. Since 2001 McTavish has been a part time scout with the Seattle Mariners Organization being part of several high profile Canadian draft picks under mentor Wayne Norton. Over the last 15 years McTavish has coached at every level of Canadian baseball ranging from American Legion to College Baseball to Team Alberta and College Summer Baseball. Coach McTavish was part of the Canadian National Junior Coaching staff in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008 that produced 2 bronze medals with the likes of MLB standout Brett Lawrie, James Paxton and Phillip Aumont. Over the last 10 years Coach McTavish has been the Head Coach & Director of Operations at the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball. The Vauxhall Academy is the first full-time Academy in Canada and has been a leader in athletic development in Canada. The Academy setting is in a small rural community in Southern Alberta and over the last 10 years has helped transform the area into an elite baseball development business model. The Academy’s new (2012) residence house all athletes as well as 7 professional staff members who provide a vehicle for success within the Academy’s moto; “Better Person..Better Player. Over the last 10 years at the helm of the Academy over 110 student-athletes that have went on to play college baseball, over 35 players have been with the Canadian National Junior Team and 15 professional draft picks. Over the last 4 years Bob Elliot with the Canada Baseball Network has listed McTavish as one of the most influential Canadians in baseball. 

Pedro Sequeira

Academic qualifications
Graduation in Physical Education (1995)
Master in Sports Sciences – Thesis in Handball (1998)
Phd in Sports Sciences – Thesis in Handball (2005)

Profession
Director of the Research Unit of the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém
Director of the Life Quality Research Centre
Full professor at Sport Sciences School of Rio Maior - Polytechnic Institute of Santarém

Other activities
President of the Coaching Confederation of Portugal (since 2014)
President of the Coaching Confederation of the Portuguese Spoken Countries (since 2015)
Member of the Methods Commission (responsible of development in Europe) of the European Handball Federation – Development area (since 2012)
Responsible for the Education Programs of the Portuguese Handball Federation (since 2004)
Responsible for the RINK Convention (European Coaches Convention) in the Portuguese Handball Federation (since 2004)
President of the Sport Pedagogy Scientific Society (since 2013)
General Secretary of European Network of Sport Science, Education & Employment (2011 – 2015)
Responsible for the RINK Convention in the Portuguese Handball Federation (since 2004)
Responsible for the new Coaches Law in Portugal for all Sports (2010)
Responsible for the organization of all Handball Coach courses, seminars, conferences and congresses since 2004
Level 4 Handball Coach
Lecture of many Handball Coach courses, seminars, conferences and congresses
Level 2 Baseball Coach
Lecture of Baseball Coach seminars, conferences and congresses in Portugal (1994-1999)
More than 40 articles published
More than 50 oral presentations and posters in conferences, seminars and congresses
Editor of one Handball Book (2012)
10 years of experience as a Handball Coach (1st Portuguese Womans League and 2nd Portuguese Mans Leaague)
2 years’ experience as a coach in the Challenge Cup
1 year experience as a coach in the EHF Cup
17 years of experience as a Handball player
3 years’ experience as a Baseball Coach in a youth team 

Tim Leiper

Toronto Blue Jays 

Timothy Joseph Leiper (born July 19, 1966) is an American professional baseball coach and manager.
Leiper, a former outfielder, had a 12-season (1985–1996) minor league playing career in the farm systems of the Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets and Kansas City Royals, batting .273 with 40 home runs in 1,166 games and 3,910 at bats.[1] He batted left-handed, threw right-handed, stood 5 foot, 11 inches (1.8 m) tall and weighed 175 pounds (79 kg).
His coaching career began while he was still an active player: he spent part of the 1992 season as an assistant baseball coach for North Carolina State University. In 1996, Leiper became a coach in the professional ranks, in the Mets' organization.[2] He moved up to managing in 2000 in the Montréal Expos' organization, working at the Short Season-A and Class A levels before his promotion to the Triple-A Ottawa Lynx of the International League in 2002. After Leiper guided the Lynx to 80 wins in 143 games that season, he spent one season as pilot of the Class A Sarasota Red Sox before returning to the Lynx in 2004, who were by then the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Leiper then spent four seasons in the Pirates' system, including three as skipper of the Double-A Altoona Curve, before joining the Florida Marlins in 2009.[3] In 2010, he managed the Jacksonville Suns, the Marlins' Double-A affiliate,[4] where he led them to the 2010 Southern League championship. He then served as the Marlins' roving minor league defensive coordinator in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, he was senior advisor for minor league operations for the Blue Jays before his promotion to manager John Gibbons' staff for 2014.
Internationally, Leiper played in Los Mochis of the Mexican Pacific Winter League in 1993, and Aguilas Cibanes in 1996, where his team won the Dominican League Championship. Coaching Internationally, In 1999–2000 He worked for Pastora, in the Venezuelan Winter League, as well as Aguilas, in 2007–2008 in the Dominican winter league. Aguilas won both the Dominican Championship and the Caribbean World Series.
Previously an offseason resident of Ottawa,[5] Leiper has also been a coach on the 2004 Canadian Olympic team, and Canada's 2006, 2009, and 2013 World Baseball Classic squads. He was also a part of the Baseball Canada Staff that won bronze medals at both the 2008 and 2011 Baseball World Cups and the Gold Medal in the 2011 Pan-American Games.
Since 2014, he serves as first base coach for the Toronto Blue Jays, his first year in Major League Baseball after 29 years as a minor league player, manager and instructor.
Source : Wikipedia

Tom O’Connell

International Sports Group
ABCA Hall of Famer


 O’Connell was recently honored as the 2011 Coach of the Year by the National High School Coaches Association. He was also ABCA National High School Coach of the Year – 2004 and 2010 – and has been named Midwest Coach of the Year four times. In 1995, he skippered the USA Baseball North Team that featured four future major leaguers in the United States Olympic Festival in Colorado.

An accomplished author, O’Connell has published three books with Human Kinetics Press, Coaching Baseball: Techniques and Tactics, one of the top selling baseball handbooks and the textbook for coach licensing in the USA, Coaching Youth Baseball, a manual for youth coaches, and, most recently, Play Ball: 100 Baseball Practice Games.

Coach O’Connell is also a frequent speaker at clinics around the United States having presented at coaching clinics in nine states. For the past thirteen years he has also been Vice-President of International Sports Group, organizing and speaking at winter coaching clinics in Germany, Spain, Slovenia, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Ireland and Austria. O’Connell has served as the Lead Envoy Coach in Germany for Major League Baseball since 1993 – spending fifteen of his summers developing players and coaches – and is currently a scout for the Baltimore Orioles.

Besides his avocation in baseball, he has been intensely involved with Milwaukee Irish Fest, the largest Irish music festival in the world, serving on its Board of Directors, supervising Festival activities and booking entertainment. He has been married to his wife Paula for 44 years and has three grown children and five grandchildren.

Ivan Rodriguez Rodriguez

Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg 

Ivan Rodriguez played and coached in Venezuela. After a playing career, Rodriguez focuses on coaching since 1994, especially in coaching infielders. In 2000, he set up a winter-program in Venezuela to prepare infielders for the next season.

In 2011, he came to the Netherlands and is involved in player development in the Netherlands as a coach of Scimitars Baseball Academy, which is one of the Baseball Academies in The Netherlands and is situated in the center of the country.

He coached their junior team. He ended the 2011 season by leading the Scimitars junior team to the Dutch title. Took a Little League team to the 2nd place in the Dutch competition and he also went to South Carolina to take part to the Big League World Series 2011 with his team.

The same year Rodriguez also was added to the coaching staff of the Dutch National Junior Team that won the European Junior championship in Gijon.

For his contributions to the development of talented players, in 2011 Rodriguez won the Bill Arce Award, which was introduced by The Dutch Baseball Federation and will be handed out annually to someone in the field of talent development; he was in the running for the Best European Coach of that year.

In 2012, Rodriguez was the head coach of the Scimitars Baseball Academy Junior's team and one of the coaches of the Rookie Team of HCAW and coached for the Netherlands at the European Cadets 2012 Cup; with this team, Rodriguez won the European Cadets Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic as well. Later on, he went with the Dutch National Junior Team to Seoul as a coach for the 2012 World Junior Championship then was promoted to head coach of the HCAW's Hoofdklasse squad in the Dutch Major League competition for 2013. He was 14-27 that year and 12-28 in 2014.

Rodriguez then left for Germany as the new head coach of powerhouse Regensburg Legionäre.
In his first year with the club, he took a very young team to an epic 5-game Final.

Kai Gronauer

Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg

Kai Achim Gromauer was born in November of 1986 in Germany.
He started his baseball career with the Solingen Alligators. In 2006, he won the National Championship and also became the
In 2006, after catching the eyes of several MLB organizations, he opted to sign with the New York Mets.
He played 7 seasons professionally with the Mets, as high as AAA.

Gromauer is currently the hitting coordinator for the Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg as well as for the Regensburg Academy.
He is also a student at the University of Regensburg for "Applied Movement Science" and "Business Studies".

Active Career:

German National Team
Youngest Senior German National Team player in history
2004: B-Pool EC Fürth/Regensburg
2005: EC Prag
2007: EC Barcelona
2007: WC Taiwan
2008: Olympic Qualifier Taiwan
2009: WC Regensburg
2011: WC Panama
2012: Homerun Award EC, Holland
2013: World Baseball Classic Qualifier Regensburg

USA
2008: GCL Mets
2009: Savannah Sand Gnats
2010: non roster invite MLB Spring Training, Savannah Sand Gnats, Mid Season All-Star South Atlantic League, St Lucie Mets, ranked „Best Defensive Catcher in the Mets Organisation“ by Baseball America
2011: non roster invite MLB Spring Training, Binghamton Mets
2012: Binghamton Mets
2013: Las Vegas 51’s, Community Service Award Gewinner
2014: Las Vegas 51’s
 world.  

Dave Turgeon

Pittsburgh Pirates

 Dave Turgeon has enjoyed a career in baseball that includes 13 years of professional playing experience that has spanned the globe combined with 16 years of managing and coaching experience at the professional and collegieate levels. As a player, Turgeon has a unique background of being drafted by the New York Yankees as an infielder and rising to the level of AA and then converting to pitcher and rising to the level of AAA. During his time with the Yankees Organization he had the priviledge of playing for Buck Showalter and Stump Merril as well as being part of a Carolina League Championship team. Spending the next several years overseas he converted to pitcher and ended up pitching in the AAA Mexican League as well as AAA with the Orioles Organization in 1998 almost 12 years after signing as an infielder with the Yanks. Overseas, he became a 3 time All Star in Taiwan and took home Player of the Year honors in 1998 while with the Reynoso Broncos.

Turgeon’s coaching background is also interesting as he has managed and coached at the professional level as well as coached at the collegiate level. Professionally his experience with the Indians Organization as both a manager (extended spring training, Appy League, Penn League) and coach (extended spring training bench and hitting coach) have been piggy backed by 8 years at the collegiate level (Boston College, Uconn, Duke, Virginia Tech) as an associate head coach and pitching coach at the Division 1 level. The journey has taken him to the Pittsburgh Pirates Organization the last 5 years in a Managerial role and Coordinator/Manager of their Extended Spring Training Program to now dual role Assistant Field Coordinator / Assistant Pitching Coordinator.
He is currently the Coordinator of Instruction for the whole Pirates organization.

Turgeon comes from a baseball family as he was the 3rd player drafted and signed from his immediate family. His brother Steve enjoyed a career as a player and coach with the St. Louis Cardinals and brother, Mike (Minor League Player of the Year 1978 while with Cubs) played with the Cubs and Giants Organizations. The family continues to produce baseball players and coaches as nephew Erik Turgeon was a pitcher in the Mets Organization, nephew Anthony Turgeon plays at Central Connecticut State University, niece Brianna Turgeon is a softball player at Fordham, nephew Casey Turgeon plays baseball at the University of Florida, and nephew Travis Turgeon is the Head Baseball Coach at Washington College after completing his degree and playing at Springfield College.

The Groton, CT native is a 1987 graduate of Davidson College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. At Davidson, Turgeon was a 3 time All-Southern Conference selection at third base and earned all Southeast Region honors as a senior. In 2005 he was inducted into the Davidson Wildcats Hall of Fame and in 2006, was inducted into the St Bernard High School Hall of Fame (Uncasville, Ct.)