(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Rabbits Baseball Academy)
 Jasper de Jong new Head Coach of Hoofddorp Pioniers
Nederlands
...Jasper de Jong...
(© Photo: Rabbits BB Academy) |
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Jasper de Jong is the new Head Coach of Hoofddorp Pioniers, the club announced on Wednesday (September 14) on its website.
De Jong succeeds, Mervin Gario, who recently stepped down and became the new Head Coach of L&D Amsterdam Pirates four days ago.
There, Gario is the successor of Ronald Jaarsma, who stepped down after having led the team in only one season due to working commitments.
Also today, it was announced that Adonis Kemp will not return as Head Coach of Twins Oosterhout.
Besides Jaarsma, Gario and Kemp, Michael Crouwel and Nick Heij also will not return at respectively DSS/Kinheim and RCH Memorie Sieraden.
Crouwel already had announced his retirement before the start of the season.
Heij will step down after RCH completes its series of games in the Major League/First Division Pilot-Pool.
Although Jasper de Jong has a long career in coaching, coming season will be his debut both as Coach and as Head Coach in the highest league.
Hoofddorp Pioniers also announced that De Jong will be assisted by Wouter Heemskerk, who also will be making his coaching-debut in the big league.
It was also said that talks are underway to add a third and fourth member to the coaching-staff of the big league-team.
In recent years, De Jong and Heemskerk worked together at the Rabbits Baseball Academy Kennemerland.
This year, they led the Juniors-team of Rabbits.
In previous years, Jasper de Jong has been active as a Coach at Hoofddorp Pioniers, where he mostly led youth-teams.
He also has been an Assistant Coach of the second baseball-team of the club for one season.
...Wouter Heemskerk playing for...
...Quick Amersfoort in 2014...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On its website, Hoofddorp Pioniers published the following:
,,Jasper has been nominated by our Technical Committee and fits perfectly into the new vision with which we are going to work.
With a renewed development-plan, we offer our talents opportunities to develop themselves at the highest level and to form a strong big league-team together.''
De Jong is a longtime member of Hoofddorp Pioniers, but never has been a regular in the main-squad in the years that it played in the highest league.
Heemskerk, a former catcher, played in fourteen full seasons in the highest league, plus two games in part of a fifteenth.
He made his big league-debut in 1994 when he played in two games for Quick Amersfoort, where he had started his career.
In the next three seasons, Heemskerk also playerd for the Amersfoort-team, the first two of them in the highest league, the third one in the second highest division.
Thereafter, Heemskerk played two seasons for Twins Oosterhout (1998-1999), then four seasons for Neptunus (2000-2003).
From 2004 on, the catcher played six seasons for Haarlem-based Kinheim (2004-2009), before retiring at the big league-level.
But he later returned to Quick Amersfoort for whom he played some more seasons when it played in the second highest league.
While playing for Neptunus in 2000-2003, Heemskerk was a member of the team that captured the Championship-title in four consecutive seasons.
In 2006 and 2007, Heemskerk played for Kinheim, which then won the title.
(September 14)
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