(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by KNBSB & Amsterdam Pirates)
 Peter Kwakernaak named Interim Technical Director KNBSB
Nederlands
...Peter Kwakernaak...
...Interim Technical Director...
(© Photo: KNBSB) |
 NIEUWEGEIN (Neth.) -
The Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Assocation (KNBSB) on Wednesday (September 28) announced that it had named Peter Kwakernaak as Interim Technical Director.
He succeeds Rick van den Hurk, who two weeks ago announced that he would step down at the end of September after being in function for just over four months.
The former professional pitcher (Major League USA, KBO South Korea, NPB Japan) was introduced as Technical Director on May 11 of this year as the successor of Tjerk Smeets, who had stepped down in December.
On its website, the KNBSB stated the following:
,,The KNBSB has appointed Peter Kwakernaak as interim Technical Director.
With the departure of Rick van den Hurk and a full and important program ahead, it was important to quickly appoint a replacement and we succeeded.
Kwakernaak will manage the National Teams and Talent Development (NTTO) of the KNBSB until at least the World Baseball Classic in March 2023.
The U23 World Championships in Taiwan in October and the Kingdom Series in Curaçao in November will also be held in this period.
As a former international and big league player, Kwakernaak has earned his spurs in baseball.
In his social career, he is a successful and experienced entrepreneur, director and senior advisor with a background in business economics.
With Kwakernaak at the helm, the baseball players of Team Kingdom of the Netherlands will once again try to conquer the world during the World Baseball Classic, after participating in the semifinals in 2013 and 2017.''
...Kwakernaak will oversee...
...the National Teams...
(© Private-photo) |
Peter Kwakernaak played in nine Dutch big league-seasons for four different clubs.
He first played for Storks and Feyenoord in the second highest league.
While playing for Feyenoord, the team played twice in the Promotion-Pool to the big league, but was unable to reach the highest league.
Kwakernaak then decided to play for Amsterdam Pirates with whom he then made his big league-debut in 1988.
In that first year, he also participated with the Amsterdam-team in the European Cup-tournament in Parma (Italy).
Thereafter, the first baseman/outfielder played two seasons (1989-1990) for HCAW-Tijgers, which named that way for four seasons after it had merged with Amsterdam-based Amstel Tijgers.
In his first season in Bussum, Kwakernaak led HCAW-Tijgers in hitting with a .390 batting average.
But the team also had to play in the Promotion/Relegation Pool in which it secured its stay at the highest level.
Next, Kwakernaak played in two seasons (1991-1992) for Haarlem Nicols.
Again, he was the team's best hitter in his first season, hitting .396 in 1991.
From 1993 on, Kwakernaak played in four seasons with Hoofddorp Pioniers.
He then retired from the big league-level after the 1996 season.
However, some 13 years later, Kwakernaak returned to the baseball-field and went on to play at a lower level for Mokum Hawks,which then was the nickname for the second team of Amsterdam Pirates.
In those years, several former players of the main-team of Amsterdam Pirates played for the team.
With Mokum Hawks, he won the title in the First Division in 2010.
After having played for a few seasons, he went on to coach the team.
In his nine big league-seasons, Peter Kwakernaak has been a teammate of 15 players, who in later years all became coaches in the highest division in different positions.
These players are Roy Berrevoets, Jurjan Koenen, Ralph Milliard (with whom he played at HCAW), Peter Boon, Dè Flanegin, Theo Geerman, Eugene Henson, Robert Klaver (at Hoofddorp Pioniers), Frank Bos, Michael Crouwel, Paul Nanne (at Haarlem Nicols), Dave Daniels, Rikkert Faneyte, Nelson Orman and Ronald Stoovelaar (who were teammates at Amsterdam Pirates).
...Peter Kwakernaak celebrates winning...
...the title with Mokum Hawks in 2010...
(© Photo: Amsterdam Pirates) |
Four of them were active as a coach this season.
Michael Crouwel was the Head Coach of the big league-team of DSS/Kinheim in his third and final season.
Before that, Crouwel coached at Kinheim in six big league-seasons (four as Head Coach).
In the past, Crouwel also coached in the big league with Amsterdam Pirates and ADO.
This year, he led DSS/Kinheim to the Wild Card Bottom Series.
Theo Geerman was in his 18th season as one of the coaches of the big league-team of Hoofddorp Pioniers, mainly as 3B Coach.
Geerman also coached in the big league with Xanthos and RCH.
Eugene Henson was the Head Coach of Silicon Storks in his third big league-season.
Earlier, Henson coached at ADO and The Hawks in the big league.
Ronald Stoovelaar was the Head Coach of Omron Pioniers in his sixth season.
This year, he led the second team of Hoofddorp Pioniers to first place in the first half of the regular season in the First Division, which is the second highest league, to advance to the Top-6 Pool.
A few years ago, Stoovelaar was a member of the coaching-staff of the big league-team of Amsterdam Pirates in five seasons (including three together with Crouwel).
Another 'member' of this group retired after last season, as Roy Berrevoets then was the Head Coach of HCAW whom he then led to the Play-Offs.
In 1989, Peter Kwakernaak played in his lone interntional tournament with the Netherlands National Baseball Team.
In December of that year, he traveled with the Orange Team to Taiwan to participate in the President's Cup Tournament in which the games were played in four different cities.
Kwakernaak then played in all seven (international) games of the Netherlands Team.
During the event, Kwakernaak hit a 3-run homerun against the USA.
In 2017, Kwakernaak became a member of the KNBSB Council.
Just over a year later, in March 2018, the entire KNBSB-Board stepped down.
A 4-person Interim Board was then compiled and Peter Kwakernaak was chosen to be one of them.
The others were Wim van den Hurk, Gerard Vaandrager and Ruud van Zetten.
In June 2018, Kwakernaak also became a member of the Supervisory Committee of the KNBSB.
In that Committee, Kwakernaak was responsible for National Teams and Talent Development in baseball.
He also served in the same position in this Committee in the following years.
...Peter Kwakernaak (at right) celebrates winning...
...the First Division-title with the second team...
...of Amsterdam Pirates in 2021...
(© Photo: Amsterdam Pirates) |
In the past years, Kwakernaak also has been active as a coach at Amsterdam Pirates and the Academy-team of Amsterdam Diamonds.
He started to coach Little League-teams of Pirates in 2010 and did so through 2014.
From 2014 on, he was a coach for a youth-team of Diamonds, where he also served as chairman through 2017.
In 2016, Peter Kwakernaak was also one of the founders of StrikeZone, together with Brian Farley, Bob Prins and Loek Caris.
At the facility, located in Lijnden, StrikeZone offered hitting and other practice sessions to develop players.
Experienced big league-players served as instructors.
Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the facility in 2017.
After having coached the Little League baseball-team of the club, he was a coach of the second team of Amsterdam Pirates for three years.
In his first season (2019), he was the Assistant Coach of Jesse Aussems.
In 2020 and 2021, the roles were reversed and Kwakernaak acted as Head Coach.
Last year, the team captured the title in the First Division.
Besides that, Kwakernaak also has been a member of the sponsor-committee of Amsterdam Pirates.
His son Thomas Kwakernaak this season played in the big league for RCH Memorie Sieraden.
During the 2019 and 2021 seasons, he also played in a few games for the big league-team of Amsterdam Pirates.
Peter's niece Julia Kwakernaak plays in the big league softball-team of Sparks Haarlem after also having played in the highest league for Hoofddorp Pioniers.
Julia is the daughter of Peters brother Jeroen, who also played baseball in the past.
(September 28)
(private photo used with permission)
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