(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
 UVV announces resignation of Head Coach Ferenc Jongejan
Nederlands
 VLEUTEN (Neth.) -
Pickles UVV announced on Friday (August 26) that Head Coach Ferenc Jongejan will step down when the season ends for the team coming Sunday.
On Thursday-evening, UVV came from behind to win 10-9 against DSS to secure its spot in next years big league.
...Ferenc Jongejan steps down as Head Coach...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Ferenc Jongejan was named Head Coach of the Vleuten-based team after the 2012 season and took over the postion from Frank Koene, who led UVV in its second season in the big league.
In 2011, American Royce Holder was the Head Coach in its first season back in the highest Dutch division.
In his four seasons as Head Coach, Jongejan led the team to fitfh place three times.
This season, UVV will end up in sixth of seventh place after a season in which the team was bothered by several injuries.
In a statement, UVV said that ''under the leadership of Jongejan, UVV has accomplished great results by finishing in fifth place three times, while the team not always could participate with the best possible compilation or adequate financial means in the competitions.
The team played with a mix of some experienced players, but mostly young, talented players, whose accomplishment were of a fine level.
Players and spectators have enjoyed attractive baseball the past few years.
This year, there were a lot of injuries, meaning the team sometimes had to play with whoever was avaibable.''
In the same release, Ferenc Jongejan stated:
,,UVV has given me the opportunity to built a team that plays attractive and offensive baseball.
A lot of young players have developed because of that.
That was also noticed by the big clubs with the big names.
A lot of talented players of UVV therefore continued their career with the top-4 teams of the Netherlands or abroad.
For UVV and myself that meant that each year with had to puzzle again to compile a representative team.
And we succeeded in that.
That's something, I'm proud of.''
It has not yet known what Jongejan will do next.
Within the club of UVV, Jongejan also was involved in the policy for youth affairs.
The board of UVV closes by saying that it wishes Jongejan a lot of success in the future and also ''opens the door for new developments''.
...Ferenc Jongejan discusses a situation this season...
...with umpire Henri van Heijningen...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
This year, which was influenced by some injuries, was the least of the four seasons under Jongejan's leadership, as the team finished in seventh place with a 9-33 record.
Currently, the team is 4-3 in the Play-Downs, which ended coming Sunday.
Several players were injured this season for a shorter or longer period, including Dennis Ribbens, Jamie Verheylewegen, Julian Rip and Tony Enos.
UVV won the most games in Jongejan's first season in 2013 when it was 17-25 to finish in fifth place in the regular season.
UVV also finished in fifth place in the following two seasons.
By finishing in the bottom-four, UVV had to play in the Play-Downs in each season.
In each of the first three seasons, UVV ended the Play-Downs in first place, resulting in fifth place overall.
This season, UVV will finish in either second or third place in the Play-Downs, depending on the results of the games to be played on Saturday and Sunday.
In his four seasons with UVV, the team was 57-109, while three games ended in a tie.
Before turning to coaching, Ferenc Jongejan was a pitcher in the Dutch big league, playing for several teams.
The lefthanded pitcher also played for the Netherlands National Team and played professionally in the organization of the Chicago Cubs in 2001-2004.
He reached Triple-A in 2003, pitching in 29 games as a reliever for Iowa Cubs.
After returning to the Netherlands, he briefly played again in the Dutch big league, but then had to end his career due to an arm-injury.
Some years later, he returned to playing and was the first baseman for UVV when it played in the second highest league.
Jongejan also is involved from the beginning with Bixie Baseball, one of the Baseball Academies in the Netherlands.
(August 26)
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