William Arce

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William Arce was a college baseball coach.^[2][3][4] He was founding director of the athletic program at the Claremont Colleges in California.^[1] The baseball facility there is named after him.^{[citation needed]}

Arce served as head coach of the baseball team from 1958 to 1979, compiling a record of 446-354-16 and leading the Stags to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships in 1970, 1971, and 1975.^{[citation needed]} He was named as one of the five finalists in the baseball coach of the year award by the American Association of College Baseball Coaches in 1975.^[5] Arce was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame 1976.^[6] He was awarded the 2001 Lefty Gomez Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association.^[7]

After retiring, Arce committed his summers and sabbatical leaves to developing baseball internationally. He was the first American baseball coach to have provided baseball instruction in Sweden (1962), Czechoslovakia (1969), Yugoslavia (1979), and the People's Republic of China (1980).^{[citation needed]} Arce also coached the national teams of both the Netherlands (1971) and Italy (1975) to the European Baseball Championship.^{[citation needed]} In 1985, Arce founded International Sports Group, a non-profit organization that conducts international coaching clinics.^{[citation needed]} Arce was also on the coaching staff for the U.S. national teams in 1970, 1976, and 1978.^{[citation needed]}

Arce was also a veteran of World War II, having fought in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.^{[citation needed]}

Bill Arce died in March 2016 aged 90 years old.^{[citation needed]}