(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Neptunus and Head Coach 't Hoen separate after season
Nederlands
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Curaçao Neptunus and Head Coach Evert-Jan 't Hoen will separate after completion of the season, the club announced on Monday (September 19).
Coming Saturday, Neptunus, which is the defending Dutch champion, opens the best-of-seven Holland Series at home against L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
In a press release, Neptunus states that the Board of the club has decided last week to end the collaboration with Evert-Jan 't Hoen after four years after completion of the season.
Led by 't Hoen, Neptunus won the Dutch championship-title in the previous three concecutive years and won the European Champions Cup last year.
The Board thanks 't Hoen's for his part in reaching these accomplishments.
The release continues with the following:
,,The leadership of the club wants to ensure that Curaçao Neptunus structurally continues to participate in the top of Dutch and European baseball and has the opinion that the current team has not reached its maximum potentional.
By choosing a new Head Coach, the club hopes to give the right impuls to continue to compete for the prizes in the upcoming years.
By taking this decision preceeding the Holland Series, the Board wants to give Evert-Jan 't Hoen sufficient time to orientate himself on his plans for coming season.
After the season, a decision will be taken regarding the compilation of the coaching-staff for next season.''
Towards the end of August 2012, Evert-Jan 't Hoen was named to the coaching-staff of Neptunus for the 2013 season.
Two weeks later, it was confirmed that he would become the team's new Head Coach taking over from Jan Collins, who stayed on as an Assistant Coach.
Before joining the main squad, for four years, 't Hoen was one of the coaches of Tridents, the Rookie League-team of Neptunus.
As a player, 't Hoen played in the Dutch big league for Twins and Neptunus.
In between, he played professionally in the organization of the Anaheim Angels, reaching Triple-A in 1999-2001.
't Hoen also played ten seasons for the Netherlands National Baseball Team with whom he participated in three Olympic Games (Atlanta, 1996; Sydney, 2000; Athens, 2004), four World Championships and four European Championships, amongst other events.
In his first three seasons as Head Coach of Neptunus (2013-2015), 't Hoen led the team to the national championship each year.
With that, he became only the second coach in history to win a Championship-title in his first three full seasons as Head Coach in the highest division.
Last year, Neptunus captured the European Champions Cup after defeating UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna (Italy) in a best-of-three Final.
This year, Neptunus was dethroned as European champion by L&D Amsterdam Pirates during the tournament in Italy.
Amsterdam Pirates went on to win the European Cup, while Neptunus finished in fourth place.
In 't Hoen's four regular seasons as Head Coach, Neptunus has won 135 and lost only 31, while playing two ties.
Last year, he won the Coach of the Year Award.
In the two previous years (2013-2014), he won the Rotterdam-Rijnmond Award for Coach of the Year in the Rotterdam-area.
In 2013, 't Hoen also won the European Coach of the Year Award.
Coming Saturday and Sunday, Neptunus will host Amsterdam Pirates in the first two games of the Holland Series in Rotterdam.
The Series then continues in Amsterdam with the next three games, starting on Thursday, September 29.
When a sixth and seventh game are needed, they will be played again in Rotterdam on October 8 and 9.
(September 19)
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