National Softball Hall of Fame Coach and Team Italy Senior Elite special advisor Mike Candrea along with Azzurre pitching coaches Nancy Evans and Becky Blatnick will be presenting and working with coaches attending CON-X 2024 at the Palacongressi in Rimini from January 26-28, 2024.
Mike Candrea will open the CON-X 2024 event on Friday, January 26th as the first speaker of the afternoon and will present "Hitting and Efficiency" in a joint session for baseball and softball. He will then host two workshops over the weekend: "Teaching and Practicing Short Game Skills" on Saturday, January 27th and “Defensive Strategies for First-Third Situations and Running Slap” on Sunday, January 28th.
Pitching coaches Becky Blatnick and Nancy Evans will also make presentations throughout the three-day convention. The first series will focus on the development of young athletes, while the second set of focus on higher levels.
Becky Blatnick's topics include: "Basics of Fastpitch Pitching Motion", "Developing Speed", "Working on Control with Young Pitchers" and "The Change-Up". Nancy Evans will cover: “Off-season Preparation for Elite Pitchers”, “Developing Riseball and Curveball”, “Effective Control Work in Pre-Season and In-Season” and “Playing the Hitter”.
Tickets to the three-day CON-X 2024 are on sale for 35 euros (+1.05 commission) until January 19th on Vivaticket.com
Mike Candrea is an absolute legend in the world of softball. After coaching for five years (1981-1985) at Central Arizona College where he won two NJCAA national titles, he was head coach at the University of Arizona (1986 to 2021) and created a collegiate softball powerhouse for thirty-six years during which he won eight NCAA national titles, eleven conference titles in the Pac-12 and reached the Women's College World Series twenty-three times. Under his legendary guidance, Jennie Finch, Jenny Dalton, Susie Parra, Nancy Evans, Laura Espinoza, Alica Hollowell, Caitilin Howe, and Team Italy’s Giulia Koutsoyanopulos developed into elite players while playing for the Wildcats. In addition to having achieved an NCAA all-time record 1674 victories, Candrea was the US National Team coach that won gold in Athens 2004 and silver in Beijing 2008 as well as two world titles (Saskatoon 2002, Beijing 2006). Since 2021, he has been Senior Advisor of the Italian Elite National Team.
Nancy Evans is a true legend of college softball, having won three NCAA titles during her time at Arizona University (1994-98) under the guidance of Mike Candrea. A dominant pitcher who won 124 games at collegiate level, Evans was named as the best U.S. college player in 1998. After finishing her career at the University of Arizona, she was inducted in the U of A Hall of Fame in 2002. Evans played professionally for eight years, winning the Women's Professional Fastpitch League title in 1999 and being named an All-Star three times. She has since had a successful coaching career, leading the Netherlands National Team to the European title in 2009 before becoming the Team Italy Elite pitching coach.
Becky Blatnick, after a brilliant high school career during which she earned all-state honors, played for the University of Arizona from 1998 to 2001. She won the national title in her senior year and was selected as a member of the PAC- 10 All-Conference Team twice. After her playing career, Blatnick joined Mike Candrea's Southwest Softball Camp coaching staff and became a private pitching instructor. She was part of the Team Hitachi coaching staff in Japan and is currently a pitching specialist for Team Italy Softball.
Forza #Italia!
CON-X 2024 NEWS
CON-X 2024 TICKETS ON VIVATICKET
by Marco Landi and Roberto Angotti
(Photos of Becky Blatnick, Mike Candrea and Nancy Evans at CON-X 2023 by PhotoBass)
