Softball mourns master coach Dolejs
Tributes have been flowing for New Zealand softball’s ‘‘golden coach’’ Ed Dolejs, who died in Nelson on Tuesday, aged 90.
Dolejs led the New Zealand women’s team to their first and only world championships gold medal in 1982. They also earned a silver and two bronzes at world series level, and won five international tournaments between 1977 and 1990 with Dolejs in the third base coach’s box.
His success with the women’s team followed his involvement as trainer of the New Zealand men’s team which shared the gold medal with Canada and the United States at the 1976 world championships in Lower Hutt.
Colin Ward, a former New Zealand player and ex-New Zealand women’s coach, was Dolejs’ longtime assistant and still believes his coaching partner and fellow builder was ‘‘the best coach New Zealand softball has ever had’’, even allowing for the Black Sox men’s team’s successes on the world stage.
Dolejs was inducted into the New Zealand and International Softball Federations (ISF) halls of fame in 1993, earning the highest ISF award, for meritorious service.
Former New Zealand players have been quick to praise Dolejs’ legacy.
One of New Zealand’s greatest pitchers, 1982 gold medallist Cheryl Kemp, said on Facebook: ‘‘Ed’s understanding of the game and of people was legendary. He will be missed but has left an amazing legacy and a revered place in our sport’s history.’’
Natalie Hazelwood, a three-time world series medallist between 1982 and 1990, described Dolejs as ‘‘a golden coach’’. She said he was ‘‘a craftsman at strategy and tactics (including creativity)’’ with ‘‘a unique ability to bring the best in his players’’.
‘‘His trust in us was something else – we felt it, we believed it, and we delivered.’’
Melisa Tupuivao (formerly Upu) was a 15-year-old when Dolejs selected her for the New Zealand team in 1990. She returned to her Lower Hutt school with a silver medal.
She said on Facebook: ‘‘Thank you for being you, Ed. You were my first NZ coach back in 1990 and I wouldn’t be where I am today without your faith in me at my age . . . I thought I was still a kid that could play decent ball, but you saw something more. I will be forever grateful.’’
Ed Dolejs was born in Ohio in 1929 and was a standout baseball, basketball and American football athlete at Northfield High School. He once trialled for the Cleveland Indians baseball team, and won an army league batting title in West Germany in 1951 in a competition featuring future Hall of Famer Ernie Banks and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Curt Simmons.
Dolejs brought wife Ruth and their three sons and infant daughter to New Zealand in 1965. They settled in Nelson, where they stumbled across softball games being played near Ta¯ hunanui Beach. Dolejs had never played competition softball, but he joined the Stoke club as a player-coach.
He coached the Nelson men’s team to the Ed Barr Cup third grade title at their first national championships in the 1968-69 season, which brought him to national attention. He was elected to the New Zealand Softball Association council in 1970, and served for 21 years.
He became New Zealand’s first paid national coach in 1974, touring the country teaching softball in clubs and schools and to gang members, borstal inmates and people with disabilities.
After serving the New Zealand men’s team as a technical adviser in 1976, Dolejs declined an offer to become head coach because NZSA officials would not allow him to take Ruth on tour. ‘‘There is no way sport can come before marriage,’’ Dolejs recalled in his 2011 memoir, Diamonds in the Sun.
Dolejs instead joined the New Zealand women’s team as assistant coach for the 1977 tour of Australia, but took over the top job after the head coach’s unexpected death.
A year later, New Zealand had its first world series medal – bronze in El Salvador. This began the most successful era in New Zealand women’s softball history with unprecedented – and still unsurpassed – international success.
Under Dolejs’ direction, New Zealand won four medals at successive world championships from 1978 to 1990 and earned the respect of the softball world.
His tenure coincided with a golden generation of New Zealand pitchers – Kemp, Debbie Mygind and Gina Weber – but Dolejs’ coaching acumen proved the critical difference.
Ten of Dolejs’ players – and assistant Colin Ward – have made the world softball Hall of Fame.
Players often remarked how he, supported by Ruth, created a family environment within the squad.
Ward recalled in Dolejs’ book how international teams clamoured to tap Dolejs’ softball secrets, with some even resorting to trying to get him drunk – a tactic wasted on a man who rarely drank.
Dolejs resigned as national coach and an NZSA councillor in 1991 after Ruth had a debilitating stroke. He lovingly attended her for 17 years until her death in 2008. He would often be seen pushing her wheelchair during walks near their home in Stoke, and the couple enjoyed holidays and dancing when Ruth’s health permitted, and treasured time spent with grandchildren.
Softball was a family game for the entire household. Ruth was an administrator, Nelson Softball Association life member and NZSA councillor; sons Danny and David, daughter Dixie and grandson Damien were national age-group representatives, while Danny and youngest son Dennis, a former national league pitcher, became prominent coaches. Danny coached national age-group teams and was a New Zealand women’s team selector, while Dennis coached the Junior Black Sox to a world under-19 championship silver medal in 1997.
Ed Dolejs was inducted as a Nelson Sports Legend. He was delighted, in 1995, when his gold medalwinning New Zealand women’s team were inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.
From 2010, widower Dolejs found another loving relationship with Dot Tinker. The sprightly couple shared a love of travel, family and indoor bowls– to which Dolejs applied his sound, strategic mind.
In the final months of his life, he took time to share his views on how the Black Sox could get back on the podium at the men’s world series and how the White Sox could, once again, become internationally competitive.
Dennis Dolejs said his father retained an incredible memory for minute details of important games played almost 40 years ago. Competitive to the end, he also never lost the ability to quickly recite the alphabet forwards and backwards, beating his great-grandson at the game on his 90th birthday.
Ed Dolejs will be farewelled at the Stoke Bowling Club in Nelson on Thursday, November 14 at 2pm.
Edward John Dolejs. Born Cleveland, Ohio on June 30, 1929. Died Nelson, New Zealand on November 5, 2019. Survived by partner Dot, sons Dan, David and Dennis, and daughter Dixie, and their families. Predeceased (2008) by wife Ruth.