Craig Montvidas

• School University of Hartford

• Born April 30, 1950

Biographical Information

Craig Montvidas has had a long career in baseball and softball.

After playing his college ball in the US, Montvidas continued his career in the Netherlands. He signed with the Giants Diemen in 1975. He made his Hoofdklasse debut with Kinheim in 1976, hitting .271. He returned to the Giants (now in the Hoofdklasse) in 1977, hitting .307, followed by .257 in 1978 and .267 in 1979. He then played for HCAW from 1980-1984. In 1980, he hit .288 with 37 runs and 16 steals (tied for third in the league). He became head coach mid-season as well. He improved to .314 and swiped 13 bags in 1981, while coaching the HCAW softball team to the Eerste Klasse title. He hit .293 for HCAW in 1982 while coaching them in softball. HCAW got relegated back to Eerste Klasse in baseball for '83 and Montvidas not only played for them but coached both their baseball and softball teams. Additionally, he was an editor and publisher of the baseball and softball journal Double Play in the Netherlands. He retired as a player at the end of the 1984 campaign, in which he coached HCAW in both baseball and softball. After 1985, he would focus solely on softball.

Montvidas has coached for the Dutch, Greek and British softball national teams and been supervisor of the Dutch softball team. He has also coached a softball team in Italy and ran clinics in China, Italy, Japan, the Czech Republic and Botswana. Craig also married former Dutch national softball team player Luciène Geels.

Source: Dutch softball team bio