(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by DSS/Kinheim)
 Etienne Meijer new Head Coach of DSS/Kinheim
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
DSS/Kinheim announced on Thursday (October 27) that Etienne Meijer has been named the new Head Coach of DSS/Kinheim.
Meijer succeeds Michael Crouwel, who retired after the season.
The rest of the coaching-staff is expected to be announced soon.
Meijer will be the second Head Coach to lead the joined main-squad of DSS and Kinheim, which still are two separate clubs.
Since 2020, the clubs work closely together and field a combined baseball-team in both the highest and second highest league.
However, in softball, the clubs are still playing with separate teams in their respective leagues.
...Etienne Meijer...
(© Photo: DSS/Kinheim) |
In the first three seasons, Michael Crouwel led the DSS/Kinheim-team.
Before that, he already had been the Head Coach of Kinheim in the previous four seasons.
Since the season ended, a long search began to find a successor for Crouwel, who already had announced that he would retired before the start of the season.
Meijer will make his coaching-debut in the highest league.
In a press release, the boards of DSS and Kinheim state that they are delighted to have found a new Head Coach in Etienne Meijer, who is no stranger to both clubs.
In the eighties, Meijer came to Kinheim from Lisse-based club The Flags.
He started to play in youth-teams, then went on to play in the main-squad of Kinheim.
Later, Etienne Meijer coached the youth-team of his son at DSS.
In the press release, it is stated that several of the current players on the DSS/Kinheim-roster have been coached by Meijer in the past.
It also reads:
Etienne's experience, as a player, coach, but also as a manager gives us a lot of confidence and we are convinced that he will be well able to continue the path we embarked on as clubs three years ago and to build next level in our development.
Meijer himself states: ''I am really looking forward to working with the entire group of players and staff next season to get the most out of it in the new season''.
After having played in youth-teams, Etienne Meijer mostly played in the second team of Kinheim, but in parts of three seasons, he also was a back-up player for the main-squad, which then played in the highest league.
In 1996, he made his debut, playing in two games.
The following year, Meijer appeared in three games.
In both seasons, he batted 2-for-5.
Meijer was a more regular player in 1998 when he played in 19 games for Kinheim and also homered twice.
After the 1998 season, Meijer transfered to RCH in Heemstede.
There, he was a regular player for four seasons (1999-2002) when the team also played in the Dutch big league.
In his first season, one of his teammates was Dirk van 't Klooster, who went on to become the all-time Hit Leader.
In the past season, Van 't Klooster was the Hitting Coach of Hoofddorp Pioniers.
In 2002, Theo Geerman was the Head Coach of RCH and also appeared in some games himself.
Through this season, Geerman was a longtime Assistant Coach/Pitching Coach at Hoofddorp Pioniers.
Another teammate was Duko Jansen, who still is active, playing for Sparks Haarlem.
During the 2002 season, another teammate of Meijer at RCH was Elvin Englentina, who then briefly played for the team.
Since a few years, Englentina is an umpire in the Dutch big league.
After his baseball-career, Etienne Meijer played several seasons in the highest men softball-league for EHS and Sparks Haarlem.
He went on to play for the Netherlands Men Softball Team with whom he participated in three European Championships.
Some years later, Etienne Meijer started playing slowpitch softball and became a member of the Netherlands Men Slowpitch Team.
Again, he participated in an European Championship, this time in 2018 in the Czech Republic, where it finished in third place.
Since 2020, Meijer was the (playing) Head Coach of the National Men Slowpitch Team.
During this years European Championship in Italy, Meijer batted 14-for-34 (.412) and scored eleven runs.
With the Netherlands, Meijer reached the Final, but then the team lost 47-31 to Great Britain.
Next year, Etienne Meijer will be the fourth rookie Head Coach in the big league, joining Greg Muller (Curaçao Neptunus), Jasper de Jong (Hoofddorp Pioniers) and Joshua Zara (RCH Memorie Sieraden).
At least six teams will have a new Head Coach coming season.
Besides the four rookies, more experience coaches Mervin Gario and Rob Hendriks will lead Amsterdam Pirates and Twins Oosterhout respectively.
(October 27)
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