SIENA. Francesco Giusti, coach of the Estra Siena Baseball Club, was among the ten winners of the “technicians” category of the “Fratelli di Sport” award in memory of Emiliano Mondonico, for sports technicians involved in social work. The award, promoted by Sport e Salute in collaboration with FSN, EPS and DSA, enhances the figure of technicians engaged in virtuous projects in the field of integration and attentive to the role of sport as a tool for social development.
Since 2007, when he became coach of the youth teams of Siena Baseball Monteriggioni, first, and of the Siena Baseball Club, then, he has ensured that baseball and softball activities become a place of attraction for people from the Latin American world, reaching register, in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, senior baseball teams almost entirely made up of foreigners or migrants with Italian citizenship. The Siena Baseball Monteriggioni ASD company, first, and the Siena Baseball Club company, then, under the impulse of Giusti, who over the years has received important recognitions (among which prizes from the provincial CONI and a recognition of sports manager of the year from CONI region), has welcomed many foreign athletes from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Japan and other non-EU countries into its ranks free of charge, widely and perfectly integrated into the various youth or senior teams, with a strong increase that occurred precisely in the past five years.
The new company, the Siena Baseball Club, a FIBS affiliate since 2021 and of which Giusti is the founder, coach and president, aims to teach respect for sporting and social rules, starting from school promotion activities.
Also with the activity of the summer camps, Giusti has distinguished himself for the active and continuous diffusion of the social dimension of sport, opening his own summer camps also to disabled people, as manager of the Municipality of Siena.
On its own proposal, in 2022, the Siena Baseball Club organized a day of solidarity, dedicating its Family Day to support Ukrainian children and refugee families.
The awards ceremony will take place on Monday 23 January at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
