*This content was translated by AI.
The first head coach and general manager of the KBO's first civic club "Ulsan Wales" have been decided. The main characters are Jang Won-jin (57), former coach of Doosan Bears One Club Legend, and Kim Dong-jin (62), former head of Lotte's operation team.
The Ulsan Sports Council announced on the 2nd that it had appointed Jang Won-jin and Kim Dong-jin through the announcement of the final successful candidates for hiring the manager and general manager of Ulsan Wales.
Coach Jang Won-jin joined the OB Bears (currently Doosan) in 1992 after graduating from Incheon High School and Inha University and played only in Doosan until 2008. In addition, except for his visit as a training coach for the NPB Softbank Hawks in 2009, he has been a leader only in Doosan from 2011 to 2020 in the KBO League and has been called a Seonggol among the Seonggol.
As a switch-hitter, which is rare in professional baseball, he played in 1,500 KBO games with a batting average of 0.283 (1,342 hits in 4,734 times at bat), 51 home runs, 505 RBIs, 612 runs and 58 steals, and a 0.342 slugging percentage. In 2000, he hit .323 (170 hits in 527 at-bats) to rank No. 1 in the number of hits.
Of course, he also participated in Doosan's many wins. In 1995, he won the Korean Series trophy as a player in 2001, and in 2016, he contributed to winning the Korean Series as a first-team batting coach. From 2023, when he left Doosan, he joined youth players as a KBO development committee member, and briefly served as an independent baseball team's Hwaseong Coryo in 2024.
Manager Jang Won-jin is known to have developed an eye for players while serving as the KBO's development committee member. Coach Jang, who met with Star News at the KBO Next-Level Training Camp last year, also emphasized his personality as a top priority for skills, saying, "These days, professional baseball is the same, and athletes have to have a much better player life."
Ulsan Wales is the first civic team in KBO history to participate in the Futures League this year. Ulsan Metropolitan City is a local government that has shown interest in expanding the base of baseball by steadily attracting KBO fall leagues and second-tier games. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) finally approved the Ulsan professional baseball team's participation in the Futures League in December, and the name was recently confirmed as Ulsan Wales.
KBO asked Ulsan Wales to secure exclusive stadiums and training facilities by mid-January, establish a club management corporation and establish a professional front office organization, and form a minimum number of players (7 coaching staff and 35 players). To that end, the Ulsan Sports Council quickly started appointing a general manager and manager, and it was decided on the same day. General manager Kim Dong-jin, who will be in line with manager Jang Won-jin, is a baseball player with various front-facing experiences such as the operation team leader at Lotte Giants in the past.
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*This content was translated by AI.

