(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo courtesy of Storks)
 Sponsor-agreement for Storks baseball-team
Nederlands
  THE HAGUE / WATERINGEN (Neth.) -
The baseball-team of Storks, which will make its big league-comeback this year, has signed a 3-year sponsor-agreement with Silicon.
The agreement was announced on Wednesday (February 28).
The agreement was signed on Tuesday-evening by Wouter Garot, the director/founder of Silicon, which is based in Wateringen.
Storks-pitcher and Pitching Coach Jurrian Koks presented Mr. Garot with a mini-shirt of the team.
The baseball-team will play as Silicon Storks in the Dutch big league.
...Jurrian Koks presents Wouter Garot...
...with a mini-shirt of Storks...
(© Photo courtesy of Storks) |
Silicon is no stranger to the club, as it has been the main-sponsor of the women softball-team in previous years.
However, the softball-team was discontinued and that created the opportunity for Silicon to transfer to the baseball-squad.
,,We're extremely happy that Silicon will continue to support us'', the club's Chairman Freek Dekker said the announcement.
,,Totgether with shirt-sponsor SSK, we now are able to cover a big part of the financial gap we had to close.
But of course, we also know Silicon especially as a loyal and involved partner.''
For Silicon, the promotion of the baseball-team of Storks is an opportunity to use the PR-opportunities more professionally.
Silicon is an innovative supplier of special welding services for the (petro)chemical, cement, nuclear and marine-shipbuilding industry.
The company has its main office in Wateringen and also in Houston (Texas) in the USA.
Wouter Garot founded Silicon in 1982 at a time when the refractory anchor industry was predominantly dictated by old and traditional methods that did not keep up with the ever-increasing loads and stresses that the modern applications were demanding.
He used his expertise in materials science and his experience in applying special high temperature alloys in special applications.
In 1990, Silicon engaged in a highly ambitious project to achieve the ultimate quality in stud welding.
The challenge was to develop stud welding machinery that was the best of its kind.
Nowadays, the Silicon stud welding technology, called Rapid Arc Welding, is recognized worldwide for its excellent safety, repetitive quality and operator friendliness.
In 1998, after the demand on the US market became so great, Wouter Garot decided to create a daughter company, named Silicon USA Inc.
Since its establishment, many industries in the United States have turned away from conventional stud welding and taken on Rapid Arc Welding as a standard.
Last year, Storks played in the second highest league ('Overgangsklasse') and qualified for the Promotion/Relegation Pool of the Dutch big league.
Together with Quick Amersfoort, the team from The Hague was successful, as it finished in the top-4, meaning promotion to the highest league.
This season, Storks will play at the highest level again after 38 years!
Storks last played in the Dutch big league in 1979 after having promoted the year before.
The stay then was short, as it relegated after only one season, winning nine of its 36 games.
In that year, Amstel Tijgers won the Dutch championship-title, while Sparta also relegated, but the Rotterdam-based team returned to the big league some years later.
Earlier, Storks had relegated from the highest division in 1975, which also happened after an one-year stay after having promoted in the previous year.
In 1973, Storks also had relegated, which then ended a longer and more successful stay in the big league that began halfway the sixties.
(February 28)
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