French champions, Montpellier’s Barracudas will remember the year 2023. Let’s analyze with their coach and leader Owen Ozanich the reasons for this success and the prospects for next season.
BTVF: For the entire club and all its teams, what is the year’s report?
Overall, 2023 will be remembered as a positive year for the club. Apart from the fact that the D1 team won its first title since 1995, the men’s softball team continued to perform well, as did the youth teams.
BTVF: For the top level, a championship victory lays an excellent springboard for 2024?
Yes, exactly, we hope to continue on the right path in 2024. We now have a target on our backs, so it’s up to us to maintain the sense of urgency to win that we had last year in 2024.
BTVF: What do you think of the JFL rule coming in?
Overall, and in the long term, the JFL rule will force teams to develop French players, particularly French pitchers. There is a key detail that no one has mentioned yet and that should be corrected. I am thinking of at least three national team pitchers, Marc-André Habeck, Franklin de la Rosa, and Jose Paula, who do not qualify as JFL pitchers. I can tell you that they are having a hard time finding a club in France now. This rule, while favoring young French pitchers, particularly those from the national academy who, otherwise, would not yet have pitched at the division 1 level, could do exactly the opposite of their intention, which is to help develop pitchers for the senior national team. If French citizens who do not qualify as JFL have nowhere to pitch because clubs will be forced to pitch other players who qualify, that would be regrettable. I know that when I was in Parma, they had a similar way of dividing weekend matches, the match for Italian pitchers and the match for non-Italian pitchers. An Italian pitcher, like Alessandro Maestri for example, who left Italy at 17 to play professionally in the United States, and only returned at the age of 32, was still considered Italian. I think the federation should consider exceptions to the JFL rule for past and present members of the national team.
BTVF: What is your feeling about an 8-team division without pools?
I think that having each team play each other is fairer. Last season, every weekend, 20% of the league did not play, that needed to be corrected. Honestly, I think the French D1 will be among the top 3 or 4 leagues in Europe. Obviously, there is still a big gap between everyone and Italy and the Netherlands, but this brings France closer to Germany and the Czech Republic and the matches should be very interesting.
BTVF: On the level of infrastructure or different projects, what have you accomplished this year?
For now, nothing, we are still waiting for the city to finance a new synthetic field. Apparently, when you win, things change, so, logically, we shouldn’t have to wait too long.
BTVF: What can we wish you for 2024?
Put France back in Pool A for the European Cup, continue to train the best young players in the country, win a new title… and finally have a new stadium!
