(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Robert Bos & Henk Seppen)
 Elton Koeiman new Head Coach of Quick Amersfoort
Nederlands
 AMERSFOORT (Neth.) -
Elton Koeiman is the new Head Coach of the big league-team of Quick Amersfoort, the club announced on Tuesday (November 15).
His name already was mentioned in the past few days, but it has now been confirmed by the Amersfoort-club that Koeiman is the successor of Marlon Frolijk, who stepped down after the season.
An Assistant Coach will be named later, but Braden Lee will return as Pitching Coach.
This year, Koeiman was the Pitching Coach of Twins Oosterhout for whom he also took the mound himself in several games.
...Elton Koeiman with Twins Oosterhout in 2022...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
This season, Quick had a disappointing season, as the team finished in eighth place of the first half of the regular season.
The goal was to be a contender for fourth place.
In the second half of the season (Bottom-5 Pool), Quick finished in fourth place to be eliminated for the Wild Card Play-Offs.
Thereafter, the team finished in first place of the Major League/First Division Pilot-Pool, which was introduced and tried out this season.
In the past few weeks, Marco Wels, who is a former coach of Quick Amersfoort, served as an advisor in the background and will continue to do so en route to the new season.
This year, Wels was the Bench Coach of RCH Memorie Sieraden, but stepped down after the season.
With that, all Head Coach-positions are now filled in for the 2023 season.
It also marks the rare situation that seven of the nine big league-teams will have a new Head Coach.
Only Danny Rombley returns as Head Coach at reigning champion HCAW, while Frank Koene will return as Head Coach of UVV, which was added to the highest league after completion of the season.
Elton Koeiman has a long career in the Dutch big league, which includes (part of) 22 seasons as an active pitcher.
In these seasons, the righthanded pitcher played in four different decades for six clubs: Twins Oosterhout, Neptunus, ADO, Sparta-Feyenoord, The Hawks and Hoofddorp Pioniers.
The Curaçao-born Koeiman first played in the Netherlands in 1988 when he was on the mound for Breda-based Jeka in the First Division.
Although the team relegated, Koeiman also played for this team in the next three seasons in the Second Division.
After the 1991 season, Koeiman transfered to Twins Oosterhout, with whom he initially played in the second highest league for two seasons.
Twins promoted to the big league in 1993 and so, Koeiman made his debut in the highest league during the 1994 season.
He then appeared in eight games for Twins (all as reliever) and was 0-1.
Koeiman again was a reliever the next season, winning his first two games at the big league-level.
After the 1995 season, the righthander was acquired by Neptunus.
In the 1996 season, he threw in only six games are reliever, but then got more appearances in the next two seasons, both as starter and reliever.
In these two seasons combined, Koeiman was 11-5 and struckout 63 batters in 127 innings.
However, he then pitched the entire season in Neptunus' second team Tridents in 1999.
After that season, Koeiman transfered to ADO for whom he then played in the next four seasons.
Koeiman was the team's prime reliever in 2002 and 2003 when he was inserted both as middle reliever and closer.
In these two seasons, he threw in 29 games, was 4-2 and earned two saves.
In 2004, Koeiman was back on the mound for Twins Oosterhout, but thereafter, the righthander played in four big league-seasons for Sparta-Feyenoord.
From that moment on, he primarily became a starting pitcher.
In his first two seasons with the Rotterdam-team, Koeiman pitched in 210 1/3 inning in 32 games, including 20 starts.
In 2008, he returned to the bullpen.
After having played in a lower league for PSV in the next three seasons, Koeiman made his comeback in the big league when he played again for Sparta-Feyenoord in 2012.
He again was one of the starters of the team and led the pitching-staff with a 5.79 ERA.
Next, Koeiman pitched for The Hawks in the 2013 season.
Again, he was a starter, striking out 34 batters in 100 1/3 inning.
Although The Hawks had a tough season, Koeiman was the winning pitcher in four games and led the league with eight complete games.
...Koeiman with Hoofddorp Pioniers in 2015..
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In 2014 and 2015, Elton Koeiman pitched for Hoofddorp Pioniers in what were two of his best seasons in which he respectively was 6-3 and 5-4.
In 2014, Koeiman led the pitching-staff with an 1.98 ERA.
The following season, he had the third best ERA with 3.66.
Koeiman then had another stay with Twins Oosterhout, pitching for the team in 2016.
Thereafter, Koeiman played in five seasons (2017-2021) for Neptunus.
In those seasons, he also was the team's Pitching Coach in the staff of Head Coach Ronald Jaarsma.
In the first two seasons in his second stay with the team (2017-2018), Koeiman also was one of the starters.
In 2017, he was 9-2 and struckout 37 batters in 69 1/3 inning and led the Neptunus-staff with a 2.73 ERA.
He shared the team-lead with his nine wins, with Diegomar Markwell, trailing league-leader Rob Cordemans, who then won 10 games while pitching for Amsterdam Pirates.
In the next season with Neptunus, Koeiman primarily was a reliever, winning one game.
Thereafter, in 2020 and 2021, Koeiman only took the mound when needed, appearing in five games and three games respectively for a total of 11 2/3 inning.
In 2017 and 2018, Koeiman celebrated the Dutch Championship-title with Neptunus.
This year, Elton Koeiman was the Pitching Coach of Twins Oosterhout in the staff of Head Coach Adonis Kemp.
After not having pitched in the first half of the season, Koeiman appeared in five games (one start) in the second half, pitching in 14 1/3 inning.
In the Play-Offs against Neptunus, he pitched 2 1/2 inning in one game in his fourth stint with Twins.
In 1997, Elton Koeiman pitched for the Netherlands Team during the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and the European Championship in France.
(November 15)
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