IN MEMORIAM ...Cees Santifort... (1943 - 2025) (© Photo: Private Photo)

Renowned longtime baseball development (youth) coach/instructor Cees Santifort passed away
Nederlands

HOOFDDORP (Neth.) - Cees Santifort, who was involved in youth-development for several decades, led Netherlands National Youth Teams for 17 years, including six with the 'Young Orange'-team, and conducted many instructional clinics, passed away on Thursday, September 25 at the age of 82 in his home-town Hoofddorp. For his many contibutions in the field of player-development, Cees was handed the KNBSB-decoration in 1985, the Bronze Honorary Medal of the KNBSB in 1986 and the Leen Volkerijk Award in 1994.

The memorial and funeral service for Cees Santifort was held in a private ceremony.

Cornelis Johan (Cees) Santifort was born on February 8, 1943 in Badhoevedorp. In this town, Cees became involved in local club Lijnden, where his father Joop already was active and he himself went on to play soccer.

In late 1957, club-(and board)members Joop Santifort, Cor Blokzijl and Jos Pastijn founded a baseball-section at Lijnden, which then changed its name from soccer-club to sports-club. A softball-section was added two years later. From the beginning, Joop accompanied and coached teams in both baseball and softball. In 1960, he was named Member of Merit of Lijnden.

In 1962, Joop Santifort became chairman of the club (succeeding Blokzijl) and a few years later, wellknown former player Jan Molleman went on to coach the baseball-team. In the period 1963-1966, the baseball-team promoted three times from the highest league in the Rayon Amsterdam to the Third Division to the Second Division to the First Division.

Cees must have inherited his passion for player development from his father. Joop Santifort was a member of the Commission for Education and Exams of the Dutch Federation for 18 years (1969-1986). In 1969-1976, the commission was led by chairman Dick Vonk, in the following years by Piet van Deenen. In these years, Theo Vleeshhouwer (1969-1971), Harry Schotte (1972-1975), Lex Rimini (1976), Hennie Oosterhof (1977-1980) and Feiko Drost (1981-1986) served as secretary. Joop was decorated by the KNBSB in 1983.

When the baseball-section at Lijnden was founded on December 31, 1957, Cees immediately started playing. At age 15 (in 1958), he made his debut in the second team. A year later, he moved up to the main-squad and went on to become a solid first baseman after initially being an outfielder and catcher. In the sixties, Cees became a physical education-teacher in Hoofddorp after having studied at the Academy for Physical Education in Amsterdam with Boudewijn Maat, who at that time played in the Dutch big league and the Netherlands Baseball Team. Maat passed away in 2023 at age 80.

Amongst the teammates of Cees at Lijnden in the late fifties and then the sixties were Rob Frie and Piet Gabes. Like Santifort, Frie also became a baseball-coach, while Gabes became a big league softball-umpire. In June 1986, Lijnden changed its name to the current one, Sports Club Badhoevedorp.

...The baseball-team of Lijnden in 1959... ...Cees Santifort is standing 5th from left; His father Joop is standing... ...2nd from right; Also on this photo are chairman Cor Blokzijl... ...(standing left), boardmember Jos Pastijn (standing right) and... ...players Rob Frie and Piet Gabes (resp. seated 2nd left & 2nd right)... (© Photo: Archive SC Badhoevedorp)

Cees Santifort not only was a talented player, but halfway the sixties, he also showed interest in coaching and began attending coach-courses of the Dutch Federation. That was the beginning of what was to become a long and successful coaching-career in which he mostly focused on the developing side of coaching. His teaching-skills and clear ways of giving instructions to (young) players were quickly noted. And so, somewhere towards the end of the sixties, Cees became a member of the group of coaches that led the annual youth baseball-camps in the city of Eindhoven. Halfway the sixties, it was Cees Herkemij, who had been one of the initiative-takers of the creation of a youth training-camp. These camps were very successful and were led by Herkemij, who was the driving force and was assisted by several coaches and players. The camps, which were organized by the Netherlands Baseball Federation, ended halfway the seventies after twelve years due to financial reasons. From the early eighties, a new variant of these camps (National Youth Camp) returned, coordinated by Herkemij and Wim Hageman.

After preparing and organizational talks had been taken place the year before by Cees Herkemij, coach Leen Volkerijk and KNBSB-boardmember Jules de Pierre, the Netherlands Baseball School officially opened its doors in Zwanenburg in January 1977. Herkemij headed this school as Manager and also was an instructor. At the Baseball School, talented (young) pitchers and catchers were selected and invited to improve their qualities. Through the years, many future big league- and National Team-pitchers and catchers participated. As the practice-sessions took place in January and February, these players began the exhibition-season well prepared. Other instructors from the beginning were Boudewijn Maat, Jan Dick Leurs and Santifort. Herkemij, Leurs and Santifort would form the core-staff for many years. Huub Kohl also would become a longtime contributor. In later years, joining the staff of instructors for one year (or a few) in the eighties were Charles Urbanus, Harry van der Vaart, Herman Beidschat, Henny Jenken and Paul Smit and in the nineties Gijs Selderijk, Brian Farley, Floor Blaauw, Berry Eygendaal, Bart Seidel, Franco Martis and Wim van den Heuvel. From 1981 on, umpires were given the opportunity (and were invited) to prepare for the season by judging live pitching and to 'find' their stance behind the catcher. The first one to oversee the umpiring instructions at the Baseball School was André Schrijber. In later years, Ton Hout and Cees Bouterse did the same.

Santifort would be an instructor for 20 years (1977-1996) with Cees Herkemij being the Manager through 1989. Roel Klaassen led the Baseball School in 1990-1993 and from 1994 on Wim Hageman. Santifort returned as instructor for two more years in 2000 and 2001.

...Cees Santifort oversees the action during a... ...practice-session of the Baseball School in 1980... (© Photo: Archive Inside Magazine (Peter Elenbaas))

Santifort and Herkemij also would work together in the Netherlands Association for Baseball Coaches (NVBC). In 1972-1975, Santifort was a boardmember, while Herkemij was the chairman in 1972-1974. Jan Prins, who had been a member in the previous three years, led the NVBC in Santifort's final year as boardmember (1975). Other members in these four years were Henk Kempen (secretary) and Leen Volkerijk (treasurer). In 1975, Prins, Kempen, Volkerijk and Santifort were joined by Max Rietbergen, Wim Ascherman and Joop Meevers Scholte. The NVBC provided coaches with instructional advices and tips via their magazine and also organized clinics in Noordwijk, which on several occasions included American (former) Major League-players and coaches. In the years that Santifort was a boardmember players Johnny Bench (1972), Bob Gibson (1972), Sal Bando (1973), Bob Oliver (1973) and Bert Blyleven (1974), manager Red Schoendienst (1974), umpires Tom Gorman (1972), Chris Pelekoudas (1973) and Bob Engel (1974) and college-coaches Art Reichle (1972), Lee Eilbracht (1973) and Jerry Kindall (1974) traveled to the Netherlands.

Always eager to learn more, Santifort and Herkemij also would attend several coach-conventions themselves in the USA, organized by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). Either together or separately. Cees Santifort and Cees Herkemij surely can be labeled as notorities in the field of player-development, education and coaching, especially in youth-baseball. Coincidentally, these two baseball-professors had almost the same given names. Santifort's names were Cornelis Johan, Herkemij's names were Cornelis Johannes. Herkemij passed away on December 29 last year at age 90. With that, the Dutch baseball-community lost two eminent, very knowledgeable and well-respected coaching-icons in a period of nine months.

On one such convention, in 1976 in St. Louis, Santifort and Leen Volkerijk attended a clinic of American college-coach Larry Carr. Two years later, in Atlanta, Herkemij saw and met Carr, who lectured a successful vision and philosophy on hitting. Herkemij, Santifort and Volkerijk, who also was an iconic (development) coach, urged the Dutch Federation to invite Carr to come to the Netherlands. And so, Carr indeed came over in February 1982 and conducted a series of well-attended clinics. Larry Carr, who was the Head Coach of the baseball-team of Coastal Carolina College and was nicknamed 'The Hit Man', passed away in 2018 at age 77.

In 1973, Cees Santifort had became involved in coaching National Teams. In that year, he was the Assistant Coach of Manager Leen Volkerijk at the Netherlands B-Team (under 23). Dick de Vries, the father of pitcher Eric de Vries served that year as Administrative Manager. Aad Peters took over the next year. In 1976, Volkerijk and Santifort won the Northern Cup in Sweden with the B-Team. Santifort would assist Volkerijk through 1977, then succeeded him the next year. Cees led the team for three years as Manager, assisted by Frank Maessen with Bob van den Bergh as Team Manager.

Also in 1977, Santifort, and American player Gary Holland (Haarlem Nicols) respectively filled in as Coach and Manager of the Young Orange-squad, as regular coaches Boudewijn Maat (Manager), Jan-Dick Leurs and Wim Hageman were unavailable due to playing-commitments with the National Team. Santifort also filled in for Hageman in 1978.

In July 1977, the team traveled to Italy for a 5-game series. Amongst the players were future Dutch big league-players Ron Giroldi, Sidney Hickinson, Marcel Joost, Frank Koks, Stephan Koops, Hans Lemmink, Jerry Remmerswaal, Harry Veldwijk, Thijs Vervaat, Haitze de Vries, Rob Walgien, Harm Wilms and Ron van Zuilichem.

...The Young Orange Team during the 1980 European Juniors... ...Championship in Antwerp (Belgium); Manager Cees Santifort stands 2nd... ...from right besides Team Manager Evert Wobma; Coach Wim Hageman... ...stands left; Sitting right is Physical Therapist Albert Jansma... (© Photo: Coen Stoovelaar (Archive Marco Stoovelaar))

A year after taking over the B-Team, Santifort also became Manager of the Netherlands Juniors Team (under 19) in 1979, also succeeding Volkerijk. Cees was Manager of 'Young Orange' through 1984. In these six years, he was assisted by Wim Hageman, while Herman Driessen was the Team Manager and Albert Jansma the Physical Therapist in most years. Jan-Dick Leurs also was a coach during several tournaments. In 1985, Santifort was succeeded by Harry van der Vaart, who had become an Assistant Coach two years earlier.

In his first year (1979) at the helm of Young Orange, team participated for the first time in the Kingdom Games on Curaçao. Due to mechanical problems with one of the motors of the DC-10 plane, the flight of the Netherlands Delegation was diverted via Portugal and the athletes arrived 40 hours later than scheduled. The schedule was adjusted and therefore, the baseball-game between the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles opened the multi-sport event. Jacques Veeris, who was appointed Minister of Sports of Curaçao a few hours earlier, threw the ceremonial first pitch with Young Orange-player Ronald Stoovelaar being the catcher. Other Orange-players included Nico Adam, Frans de Bruijn, Bill Groot, Rob Hendriks, Roel Klaassen, Robert Knol, Stephan Koops, Ed Kruijs, Marcel Kruyt, Erwin van Rooij and Mike Stenzler. Amongst the players in the Antillian team were Renato Anasagasti, Jacky Jakoba, Gershwin Leuteria, Arthur Mari and Hensley Sluis.

Besides the above-mentioned players, others who were selected for the Young Orange-team in the next five years included Bob van Aalen, Reinier Abrahamsen, Marcel Benningshof, Tony Benningshof, Ben van de Berg, Danny Bout, Bart Bruin, Tonny Cohen, Rick Corbeau, Peter van Dalen, Robert Eenhoorn, Sven van der Graaf, Tom Groot, Roland de Groot, Gerlach Halderman, Mark Hardiek, Marco van Hoften, René van Huffel, Alswinn Kieboom, Micha Klooswijk, Harry Koster, Geza Kovacs, Peter Kwakernaak, Jaap Land, Marco Loevendie, Fred Mäkel, Erik Otter, Franklin Richardson, René Rijst, Ruud Schnitker, Olav Starreveld and Pim Winkel.

All these players would for many seasons in the Dutch big league and many of them would continue their international career in the Netherlands National Team. From this group Eenhoorn, Groot, Halderman, Knol, Koster, Kruyt and Stoovelaar and from the 1977 team, Giroldi, Joost and De Vries would participate in an Olympic Games.

In these six Young Orange-years, the team participated in three Kingdom Games, three European Championships and two World Friendship Games.

Throughout the years and also while coaching the Netherlands Teams, Cees would continue giving clinics and instruct coaches and young players.

...Cees Santifort, Wim Hageman, Cees Herkemij and... ...Jules de Pierre (left to right) having a meeting regarding... ...youth-trainingcamps in the eighties... (© Photo: Archive Cees Herkemij)

Since the early seventies, Cees Santifort lived in Hoofddorp, where he also became very active for Hoofddorp Pioniers. His son Bob played for the club, including some seasons in the main-squad at the highest level. Other son Cees Jr. played basketball.

On the website of Pioniers, the club's board published the following reaction:
,,It is with sadness that we learned of the passing of Cees Santifort.
Cees was a familiar face at Hoofddorp Pioniers for many years. He served as technical manager, among other things, and was known as the man behind Peanut Ball, where he introduced generations of children to baseball and softball. He also had the wonderful tradition of presenting the Coach of the Year Award every year - a moment many looked forward to.
We are grateful to Cees for everything he meant to our sport and club. His legacy lives on in the many stories and memories, and in the people he inspired.
We wish his family, friends, and acquaintances strength and courage during this difficult time.''

In April 1989, Santifort, KNBSB-boardmember Dick Bliek and umpire Erick Barkhuis traveled to Russia. The year before, the (former) Soviet Union had become a member of the International Baseball Association (IBA). As baseball had become an official Olympic sport, the country was ambitious wanted to learn more of and become better in baseball in order to perform at a higher level. Therefore, the Russian Baseball Federation asked for instructors. Known for its reputation in the field of player development, the IBA extended an invitation to the Netherlands. And so, Santifort, Bliek and Barkhuis stayed a week in Anapa, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea to give clinics for coaches, players and umpires. Bliek already had made some earlier trips to Eastern Europe (Poland, former Czechoslovakia) with the Trail Blazers-team.

In 1990, Cees accompanied three boys and one girl to Los Angeles (USA) for the first edition of the World Children's Baseball Fair, which was created by homerun-hitters Sadaharu Oh (Japan) and Hank Aaron (USA).

In 1992, Cees Santifort compiled a book about peanutball (t-ball) with tips and instructions for coaches. And he compiled an instructional video full of tips for coaches. The camera-work and editing of the material for the instruction-video was done by Marco Stoovelaar, the author of this In Memoriam.

...The cover of Cees Santifort's... ...book 'Peanutbal' (1992)...

Cees Santifort returned in uniform in 1995 when he was named Manager of the Young Netherlands Team, which was a team between the National Team and the Young Orange-squad. Cees was Manager of this team for five years and was assisted by Huub Kohl (1995-1996), Henny Jenken (1997-1999) and Harm Wilms (1999).

Besides being active as a coach since the late sixties for many years, including 17 with a National Team, and being involved with the Baseball School for almost 25 years, Cees Santifort also shared his knowledge in other roles. Through the years, he served as advisor and was a member of some task forces. And of course, he continued being a lecturer and instructor.

In 1983-1987, Cees was one of three advisors of the Section-board for Recreational Sports of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB). The other advisors in these five years were Joop Köhler and Arend de Winter. In this span, Egbert van der Sluis, Dick Bliek and Aad van der Elst acted as chairman, while Elly Bos first was secretary and then Ria Hogeslag.

In 1991-1996, Cees also had an advisory position in the School- and Recreational Commission, since 1992 together with Jacques Neutkens. The commission was chaired by Harry Meijers with Wil Soolsma as secretary and Ruud Fokkenrood and Harold van Duinen as members.

In 1995-1999, Cees Santifort was a member of two task forces, one for peanutball-education and one for coach-education (baseball/softball). Besides making plans and compiling exercise material, Cees also was one of the instructors during cources. Other peanutball-instructors included Gijs Selderijk, Harold van Duinen, Ria Hogeslag, Marian van Deursen, Roderick Balk and Margot Mels. Amongst the other instructors during the coach-cources in these years were Michel Aussems, Ingeborg Berk-Cleeren, Guus van Dee, Marian van Deursen, Rieke Dirks, Wim Hageman, Marco van Hoften, Fokke Jelsma, Hannie Joosten, Jos Kervers, Bob Krijnen, George Presburg, René Ras, Bart Seidel and Gijs Selderijk.

Since the eighties, an European Coach Clinic was organized annually in Noordwijk. During most of these editions, Leen Volkerijk headed the organisational staff. When Volkerijk passed away in 1993, Santifort succeeded him and led the staff through 1996. Henk Leeflang then took over this position, but Cees continued as advisor for some eight more years.

For his 15-plus years of coaching National Youth Teams, Cees Santifort received the KNBSB-decoration in February 1985.

In March 1986, the Baseball School celebrated its 10th anniversary. During that occasion, Cees Herkemij, Jan Dick Leurs and Santifort were honored for their work. Herkemij got the Silver Honorary Medal, while Leurs and Santifort were handed the Bronze Honorary Medal of the KNBSB.

And in 1994, for his many and succesful contibutions in the field of player-development, Cees was the second recipient of the Leen Volkerijk Award, which is handed out annually by the KNBSB to an individual who has made signiticant contributions to the development of baseball.

Cees Santifort has always enjoyed working with young (talented) players. When on a field, standing in front of players or coaches or clinicians, he always was very passionate and enthusiastic in sharing his knowledge. And he was proud of his accomplishments through the years. Always having a smile on his face, Cees also enjoyed talking with others, sharing stories and experiences. Cees will surely be missed by many of us.

The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Cees' partner Riet, sons Cees Junior and Bob, daugthers-in-law Tamara and Marjolein, grandchildren Kevin, Yufan and Lisanne, other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.

(October 6)