23 November 2002
2003 Annual General Meeting

The Brighton Buccaneers held their 2003 Annual General Meeting on 23 November at the Imperial Hotel in Hove.

Team Awards Ceremony

MalihoudisThe meeting featured the club's annual awards ceremony.

Alex Malihoudis won the team's Most Valuable Player award for Senior team players. The Junior MVP award went to Kieran Lusk.

Koh Murasaki (senior) and Marty Hughes (junior) won the Rookie of the Year awards; Carl Smith (senior) and Carl Soan (junior) were the Most Improved Players. Martin Stabe won the Dave Panto Players’ Award.

Stephen Bator won the Richard Gerrard Award. The prize, given to the junior club member demonstrating the most promise as a player, is named for Richard Gerrard, a long-time coach in the club’s junior programme who passed away in May 2002.

Committee elections

• Kevin Gogan stepped down as Treasurer, and Martin Stabe was elected to fill the position. Gogan will continue to serve as the Head Coach of the Premier Division team.
  
• Johny Olsson announced that he would not be continuing as coach of the youngest Bucs players, but would continue working in the junior programme.

Season Recap

Club president Craig Savage presented a summary of the year’s activities. Among the highlights:

• During the last week of the Rawlings National League season, the Senior First Team snuck into second place. In the Final Four tournament, the Bucs reached their fifth consecutive national final, but lost to the Windsor Bears. Coach Craig Savage announced his intention to “make some changes” to the team.
  
• The Senior Second Team had an excellent season in its first year in Britain’s top aluminium-bat league. Often starting a clutch of Pony players, Kevin Gogan’s team finished fourth in the Premier Division Southern Conference, but fell to the Richmond Flames in the playoffs.
  
• The Pony team lost only one game all year: its Final Four encounter with the Essex Arrows. The team enjoyed free dinners after home games, courtesy of sponsor Bardsley’s Fish & Chips. Coach Andy Clark’s squad will lose several players to the Senior side of the club, but will also bring up a number of players from the Bronco programme.
  
• The first Rawlings National League player import scheme was a great success for the Buccaneers. Coach Craig Savage praised Bucs selection Pat Austin for bringing his competitive nature to the first team while making major contributions to coaching in the Junior programme. The Buccaneers will be participating in the programme again in 2004.
  
• Five Buccaneers players — Nick Carter, Michael Close, Dave Donaldson, Alex Malihoudis and Ryan Stewart — represented Great Britain at the the European Championships. Great Britain players Darren Heath and Gary Tongue briefly joined the Bucs before the tournament.
  
• Buccaneer Marl Earl travelled to Lafayette, Indiana, to play in the Colt World Series with Great Britain Juniors.