Montvidas named Rebellion manager
The Pennsylvania Rebellion reached across the ocean to find their next manager.
Craig Montvidas, the manager of the Netherlands National Team, has been hired to the same post for the Pennsylvania Rebellion for the 2015 NPF season.
Montvidas replaces Stacey Rice, who took over the team 12 games into the season after Rick Bertagnolli resigned. Montvidas is on a one-year deal.
“I’ve had a dozen conversations with him,” said Steve Zavacky, assistant general manager of the Rebellion. “He’s a down-to-earth man, a family man and he is very involved with the softball community.”
Zavacky said he received help from NPF commissioner Cheri Kempf, who recommended a list of candidates that included Montvidas.
“When we had to look for a coach, the first call I made was to Cheri at the league office,” Zavacky said. “I met with (Montvidas) at the (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) convention at Bally’s in Las Vegas right before Christmas (Dec. 3-6). If you look at his resume: he coaches internationally, he won a European championship, he knows the game and he can deal with the supreme softball player.”
Montvidas is a native of New Jersey and played baseball at the University of Hartford.
He was named head coach of the Netherlands National Team following the completion of the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and coached for three years.
Montvidas was named manager a second time in 2008 and led the Orange to their first European Championship title in 19 years with a shutout victory over Montvidas’s former team, Great Britain. His team also won titles in 2011 and 2013.
“I consider it a prestigious honor that the Rebellion has asked me to coach its team this season,” Montvidas said in a release. “The past two summers, I had the opportunity to have seen several NPF games. The talent level is extremely high, and the athletes are extremely dedicated both on and off the field. The Rebellion ownership has already shown me their professionalism during our numerous meetings. I am very impressed and eager to get started.”
The Pennsylvania Rebellion will make two trips to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the first month of the season to play the newest team in the National Pro Fastpitch softball league, the Dallas Charge.
The Charge were added this month to the other four teams: USSSA Pride, Akron Racers, Chicago Bandits and Rebellion. The first three-game homestand runs June 3-5 and the second will take place June 17-19.
“We have to go there two times no matter what,” said Rebellion assistant manager Steve Zavacky. “I guess you can have different trains of thought about that. One is that we’ll get that over early.”
The Rebellion, coming off a 9-41 season and a first-round championship series loss to the eventual champion USSSA Pride, open the season at Consol Energy Park Friday, May 29 in a unique series with the Chicago Bandits and Akron Racers.
Zavacky said doubleheaders are planned for two of those days, but that part of the schedule has not been finalized yet.
“We will be hosting clinics that weekend,” said Zavacky. “So those attending the clinics can also come to the games. It fits in nicely with what we’re trying to do. We’ll also host youth clinics on July 10, 11 and 12 when the USSSA Pride is here.”
Another set of clinics will be offered Aug. 7-9, when the Akron Racers are in town.
The NPF schedule was made at the league meeting in Orlando Tuesday but many of the game times are not yet finalized. The schedule does include a number of weekend games throughout the league, a change from last season when the NPF generally kept the weekends free of games.
“Everyone has made sacrifices in this process,” said Zavacky.
The completed schedule for the Rebellion is expected to be released before this weekend.
The NPF Championship Series returns to Hoover, Ala., Aug. 14-18. The league’s top four teams will qualify for the playoffs. The format will remain the same with the No. 1 seed playing No. 4 and Nos. 2 and 3 playing, all in best-of-3 series. The winners play in another best-of-3 series for the Cowles Cup.