{"id":42955,"date":"2024-03-13T10:27:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T17:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=42955"},"modified":"2024-03-13T10:32:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T17:32:39","slug":"scott-sunley-to-manage-world-champions-australia-at-wbsc-mens-softball-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=42955","title":{"rendered":"Scott Sunley to manage World Champions Australia at WBSC Men&#8217;s Softball World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/en\/news\/scott-sunley-to-manage-world-champions-australia-at-wbsc-mens-softball-world-cup\">From the WBSC<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">??? Scott Sunley to manage World Champions Australia at WBSC Men&#39;s Softball World Cup.<br><br>?? &quot;I\u2019m extremely excited for what\u2019s to come in 2024 and beyond,\u201d said Sunley.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SoftballWorldCupM?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SoftballWorldCupM<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1pkx2LEKs5\">https:\/\/t.co\/1pkx2LEKs5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WBSC ?? (@WBSC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WBSC\/status\/1767493737964605740?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 12, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-light-green-cyan-background-color has-background\">Scott Sunley has being appointed as Australia Men&#8217;s National Softball Team head coach ahead of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/en\/events\/2024-xviii-mens-softball-world-cup-group-a\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WBSC Men\u2019s Softball World Cup<\/a>. The defending world champions will open the tournament in Group A, to be played from 12 to 16 June in Hermosillo, Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m incredibly excited and privileged to be joining the Aussie Steelers family as head coach. Following Laing is an honour and something that I don\u2019t take on lightly. I have always had an incredible respect for Laing and his commitment to excellence,&#8221; said Sunley. &#8220;If we continue to work hard, make smart decisions, and understand that you can always learn from the game then we can continue the success that has been built over the past few years. I\u2019m extremely excited for what\u2019s to come in 2024 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>World No. 1 Australia<\/strong> will play the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/en\/events\/2024-xviii-mens-softball-world-cup-group-a\/news\/mens-softball-world-cup-groups-unveiled-world-no-1-australia-to-start-title-defence-in-group-a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Group Stage<\/a>&nbsp;of the WBSC Men&#8217;s Softball World Cup in Hermosillo, Mexico, where they will face No. 5&nbsp;Czechia,&nbsp;No. 9 Mexico, No. 14&nbsp;Philippines,&nbsp;and two teams coming from the Americas Qualifier.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sunley has experience in international softball, including his time as assistant coach for the world-championship winning team at the U-23 Men\u2019s World Cup in 2023 along with the U-18 Men\u2019s World Cup team in Hermosillo last year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;If we continue to work hard, make smart decisions, and understand that you can always learn from the game then we can continue the success that has been built over the past few years. I\u2019m extremely excited for what\u2019s to come in 2024 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>With a career spanning 33 years (and eight as a national team player), Sunley has a wealth of knowledge in men\u2019s softball. His coaching experience is spread across every age group, with significant contributions at all levels of the sport. In 2014 Sunley was inducted into the Softball Queensland Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/en\/events\/2024-xviii-mens-softball-world-cup-group-b\/home\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.wbsc.org\/assets\/cms\/shares\/MSWC_-_Groups_1x1_V2.png\" alt=\"MSWC Groups\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With the wild card, Hong Kong, China becomes the fourth Asian squad in the WBSC Men&#8217;s Softball World Cup, along with world No. 2 Japan, Singapore and No. 14 the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A total of 11 teams out of 18 have been confirmed for the group stage:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Africa (2)&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>TBD<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Americas (5)&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>TBD<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Asia (3)<\/strong>&nbsp;No. 2 Japan, No. 11 Singapore, No. 14 Philippines<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Europe (2)<\/strong>&nbsp;No. 5 Czechia, No. 17 Netherlands<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Oceania (2)<\/strong>&nbsp;No. 1 Australia, No. 8 New Zealand<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hosts (3)<\/strong>&nbsp;No. 3 Canada, No. 6 USA, No. 9 Mexico<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Wild Card (1)<\/strong>&nbsp;No. 24 Hong Kong, China<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The 18 teams&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/en\/events\/2024-xviii-mens-softball-world-cup-group-b\/news\/mens-softball-world-cup-groups-unveiled-world-no-1-australia-to-start-title-defence-in-group-a\" target=\"_blank\">will participate across three groups<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;in the first phase of the World Cup.&nbsp;Group A will be hosted in Hermosillo, Mexico (12-16 June); while Group C will be played in Oklahoma City, USA (17-21 September).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;final composition&nbsp;of the groups&nbsp;will&nbsp;be announced after the completion of the two remaining continental qualifiers.&nbsp;The African Qualifier will take place in South Africa from 29 February to 2 March, and the Americas Qualifier is scheduled to be played in Sincelejo, Colombia, between 7 and 14 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SoftballWorldCupM?src=hashtag_click\">#SoftballWorldCupM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the WBSC Scott Sunley has being appointed as Australia Men&#8217;s National Softball Team head coach ahead of the&nbsp;WBSC Men\u2019s Softball World Cup. The defending world champions will open the tournament in Group A, to be played from 12 to 16 June in Hermosillo, Mexico. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly excited and privileged to be joining the Aussie [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,28,9,35,23,82],"tags":[829,1413,73,562],"class_list":{"0":"post-42955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asia","8":"category-featured","9":"category-international","10":"category-oceania","11":"category-tournaments","12":"category-wbsc","13":"tag-softballoz","14":"tag-softballworldcupm","15":"tag-wbsc","16":"tag-wbscsoftball","17":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42955"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42962,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42955\/revisions\/42962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}