It brought back the team’s de facto leader, who left the team three years ago. The NC Dinos appointed Lee Ho-joon, the “homji” who formed the foundation of the team, as their new manager.
The NC Dinosaurs announced on Tuesday afternoon that they appointed Lee Ho-joon, LG’s chief coach, as their fourth coach. The terms of the three-year contract are up to 1.4 billion won (300 million won for down payment, total annual salary of 950 million won, and option of 150 million won).
Coach Lee Ho-joon is like a contributor to the founding of NC Dinos as of now when he was an active player. He debuted as a pro after being nominated by the Haitai Tigers in 1994, and went through the Haitai-SK pro baseball league. He joined the team as an FA ahead of his first season as a first team player in 2013.
Until he retired in 2017, he dominated the mood of the team as captain and dugout leader. As a charismatic veteran, he took the center stage of the team so that the fledgling team would not be swayed. Along with Lee Ho-joon’s leadership, NC quickly became a strong team and successfully advanced to the postseason for four consecutive years from 2014 to 2017.
Coach Lee Ho-joon personally also made a remarkable achievement when he was a pro baseball player at NC. He announced his retirement from playing in 575 games with a batting average of 286, 538 hits with 95 homers and 398 RBIs with an OPS of .869.
After that, he received a year of leadership training at the Yomiuri Giants in Japan, returned to NC in 2019 and served as the first-team batting coach until 21. He moved to the LG Twins in 2022 and served as the first-team batting coach, quality control coach, and head coach until this year, before becoming the NC manager.
Coach Lee Ho-joon was constantly mentioned as a sense of supervision. He was also mentioned as a candidate for the SSG Landers last year. When he was at NC Dinos, he was considered as a candidate for the coach, but in reality, he was nominated when he was appointed as the coach in 2022, but Gong Pil-sung was appointed as the coach of the Futures.
NC waited until LG’s elimination from the postseason, which head coach Lee Ho-joon had been involved in, was confirmed. In the meantime, countless rumors have been mass-produced and Lee Ho-joon has been constantly mentioned. In a phone call with OSEN, Lim Seon-nam, NC’s general manager, said, “I couldn’t help but be conscious of such rumors. I thought it would be inappropriate to pick or exclude such rumors, and I tried not to pay attention to them as much as possible,” drawing a line completely on the preliminary contact.
Lim said, “I met all the candidates inside and outside the club, and the last person left was Lee Ho-joon. The season ended the last among the candidates we wanted. I don’t think LG is doing the interview because it was in the series, and we waited until the end before conducting the interview.” The interview was conducted on the 21st and the final decision was made on the 22nd.
The final camp began on the 15th, so he hoped to be with a new head coach. However, NC persistently waited for an interview with Lee Ho-joon, who was the last among the candidates. “There were people we wanted to see, so we had to wait until the end of the season,” Lim said. In the end, it could be seen that the appointment process was long for the final interview with head coach Lee Ho-joon.
He spent 10 years as a player and leader at NC from 2013 to 2022. He knew NC’s culture better than anyone else. He is an outsider, but he is an insider. Except for the first coach Kim Kyung-moon, both Lee Dong-wook and Kang In-kwon were appointed as NC’s coaches after serving as NC’s coaches for a long time.
The fact that he knows NC well was not a factor of extra points, he said. “I tried to exclude myself from the past as much as possible. Most of the people I met this time were outsiders, but I tried to exclude them as much as possible because it would be unfair to those who were not in this club. I didn’t even consider the part that served as the focal point of the team in the past,” Lim said.
Nonetheless, NC chose to accompany Lee Ho-joon again for the first time in three years. Both Lee Jin-man and Lim Sun-nam wanted a new coach who could understand the team’s philosophy and communicate with the team. Lee Ho-joon said, “It was accurate.” 스포츠토토
Lim said, “You’ve won for three years and had so many good experiences. In many ways, I felt that the philosophy was much deeper than three years ago,” and added, “It was important that the philosophy fits well, for example, the first team does its best to win every game and the team is working hard to foster players. It’s ideal to communicate hard in each area and move in the same direction, but you thought exactly that. He said that before we even asked him the question, so I felt he was looking in the same direction.”
Coach Lee Ho-joon served as the batting coach for the first team for three years from 2019 after training as the Japanese team’s leader in 2018. During the period, NC was a team that boasted incredible firepower. It had a batting average of 277 (2nd), 485 homers (1st), and OPS.783 (1st). It was his first major position in the team, but he made remarkable achievements. At that time, he received high scores by properly understanding and utilizing the data provided by the team. His performance and ability to collaborate at that time were one of the reasons behind his appointment.
Lim Sun-nam, the general manager, said, “I was impressed to see you collaborate well with the data team when you were batting coach for our team. I tried to exclude my past appearance as much as possible, but the ability to use data was one of the parts that I thought well of in our team’s past appearance,” and added, “The perspective from the outside must be different, but it is a part that enabled me to create good synergy with the club in terms of data utilization.”
He also predicted that the formation of the coaching staff would not take long. “During the interview, we also had discussions about the composition of the coaching staff, which is not different from what the coach envisioned. I think the team will be organized well through consultation without any difficulties,” Lim said.
Lee Ho-joon, the new head coach, said through the club, “First of all, I am happy to meet the passionate fans of Changwon once again. NC has always been a special team for me, including NC’s first KBO League game and NC’s first retirement ceremony in 2013, and said, “I am honored to be with you as a coach in a special team.”
“Our team is young and has many possibilities. I think the growth of young players is the foundation for our team to become a strong team. I think it is my role to make this possibility a reality with the club,” he said. “I will try to show baseball to the baseball fans in Changwon through fast and aggressive baseball. I will trust everyone who tells us and go on a journey ahead. I will do my best to help NC become a prestigious team.”
