Valcke helps Hong Kong to rise in WBSC world rankings

With Canadian head coach Tom Valcke at the helm, Hong Kong’s men’s national team jumped 13 spots in the recently released annual World Baseball Softball Confederation 2018 rankings, shooting up from 41st to 28th, one spot behind Austria and one ahead of Russia. The jump in the ranking is more than any of the other 150 plus countries competing around the globe.

USA is ranked No. 1, taking over from Japan, followed by Korea, Cuba and Chinese Taipei. The rest of the top 10 includes Mexico, The Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Puerto Rico.

The Canadian women’s national team is ranked second behind Japan. Team USA is No. 3, followed by Australia and Venezuela to complete the first five. The top 10 is completed by Taipei, Korea, The Netherlands, Cuba and Hong Kong.

Valcke, who took over the program March 1, led Hong Kong to unprecedented performances in the 2018 Asian Cup in June, as well as the prestigious 2018 Asian Games, held in Jakarta, Indonesia at the end of August, where Hong Kong had never previously recorded a win. His contract was based on a seven-month grant, concluding Sept. 30th.

Valcke, who has taught in 23 different countries, now lives in Stratford. He has conducted coaching clinics and technical commission assignments abroad on behalf of the Major League Baseball. Past jobs have included general manager of the Triple-A Calgary Cannons, TV analyst for the Montreal Expos, president/CEO of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, GM/head coach of the International Canadian Academy of Sports Excellence (iCASE, Ontario’s first full-time high school baseball academy), and coach with Toronto’s George Brown College.

The father of three (Alanna, 26, is pursuing her Ph.D. in Psychology at University of Waterloo; Jaxon, 21, is studying Business at University of British Columbia while playing for the Thunderbirds; and, Mia, 18, who finished playing for Team Canada in her second Senior Women’s World Cup in August, who is studying Kinesiology at UBC, while on a softball scholarship.

Mia, who plays for the Stratford Nationals midget boys baseball team and the 2018 Canadian Champion Waterloo Ghosts midget girls softball team, has been invited to Ft. Myers, Fla. to attend the Final-27 camp for Softball Canada’s Junior National Team, from Jan. 6-13, 2019. If she were to make it, Valcke would become only the second female in history to play in a World Cup for both Team Canada baseball and Team Canada softball, following Rebecca Hartley (Calgary, Alta.).

Valcke helped open the Pinnacle Fieldhouse, an indoor training centre based in Stratford, so that local baseball, softball, rugby and soccer teams wouldn’t have to fight winter weather driving to Kitchener or London to train indoors.

Valcke, who guided Hong Kong to the fifth-place game at the Asian Games, following upset wins against the host Indonesia and a walk-off win over Thailand, as well as holding their own against eventual gold medalist Korea, which sent a professional all-star team to Jakarta.

Knowing time was short, and that he was dealing with 20-and-30-somethings, Valcke utilized his decade of full-time scouting to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the players as individuals, implemented strictly minor mechanical changes, and focused their seven-nights-per-week practice regimen on sharpening team tactics such as cut-offs and relays, rundowns, pick-offs, bunt coverages, first-and-third defense, throwing ahead of runners, backing up the proper bases, and anticipating errors, in other words, prevent versus react.