(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Olga Lablans...
(1946 - 2017) |
 Former Official Scorer Olga Lablans passed away
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Former Official Scorer Olga Lablans-Mol has unexpectedly passed away on Monday, January 16 after a short, but agressive illness, which was diagnosed last month.
She had turned 70 on December 8.
For her many contributions through the years, Olga Lablans received several decorations.
In 2006, the Municipality of Haarlem named her Sports Volunteer of the Year for her work at Sparks Haarlem and in 2009, she was named Member of Merit by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association.
In 2011, for her many voluntary activities in (then) 48 years, Olga received a Royal Decoration and was Knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau with Haarlem's Mayor Bernt Schneiders handing out the decoration.
The memorial and cremation service will be held on Monday, January 23 at the Crematorium Westerveld, at the Duin en Kruidbergweg 2-6 in Driehuis.
The service begins at 11:30 AM.
Afterwards, there is an opportunity to offer condolences to the family.
There also is an opportunity to offer condolences on Saturday, January 21 and Sunday, January 22 from 7:30-8 PM at Uitvaartcentrum Monuta Haarlem at the Kloppersingel 7-9 in Haarlem.
Olga Lablans always was very energetic, spontaneous and was full of humour with a very recognizable voice and laugh.
For many, Olga is known as a longtime Official Scorer in softball, but she has done much more and has been very active in other fields through the years.
Olga always wanted the best for softball and for instance did a lot of work in several youth committees.
At the club-level, she had been the secretary of Sport Club Haarlem and held several positions at Softball Club EHS.
Olga has been playing softball herself for many years and also has coached several softball-teams in the past.
In the eighties, she became very active in the organization of the Bill Jeffrey Tournament, the international men softball-tournament that was held annually at the site of DSC '74 in Haarlem.
In 1985-1989, she was the secretary of the board of the softball-section of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB).
After these five years, Olga was a member of the Game Affairs Committee Softball.
She first was the committee's vice-chairman in 1990, then was its commissioner in the next two years.
In that position, she oversaw all national softball-competitions and was in contact with the club-representatives, as well as working closely with those responsible for the scheduling of the softball-games at the main offiice of the KNBSB.
...Olga Lablans as Official Scorer...
...during a game of the Netherlands...
...National Softball Team...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
It was in 1992, that Olga Lablans also became more and more involved in youth-softball.
She was a member of the KNBSB Youth Committee in 1992 and 1993.
In that same period, in 1992, she joined the Youth Commitee Softball of the Haarlem-region.
In this committee, she was chairman for one year, then was its advisor for the next four years.
As a representative of this committee, in 1992 and 1998, she was a member of the Youth Committee of the newly created District West and was its secretary in 1999 and 2000.
Olga was a member of the KNBSB Boys Softball Committee in 1998 and 1999.
This was a very busy period for Olga Lablans.
In November 1994, she was elected member of the Board of the KNBSB, taking over the position for Technical Affairs Softball and National Teams after the sudden passing of Egbert van der Sluis in August of that year.
She remained member of the Board through early April 1997.
During the council meeting in that month, it was decided to change its structure to include less board-members.
In 1997, Olga became the Business Manager of the Netherlands National Junior Softball Team.
This was the beginning of a 7-year association with the team.
In that period, she handled all administration and contacts of this national youth-team.
That included talks with the KNBSB-board, club-representatives, players, coaches, sponsors and making arrangements with clubs for the scheduling of practice sessions, exhition games, etc.
But also the arrangements of the teams for participations in international events, such as scheduling bus- and plane-trips, as well as arranging hotels.
She often told that one of the highlights in this busy period was a trip to Nanjing in China in 2003 for the World Juniors Championships Softball.
Another highlight was meeting then-Crown Prince (and now King) Willem-Alexander, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch during the Opening Ceremony of the Kingdom Games of 2001 in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
During these Games several sports were played, including baseball and softball.
In the early nineties, Olga Lablans decided to join the corps of Offcial Scorers.
While most scorers are assigned for both baseball and softball-games, Olga was one of the few that only did softball.
And she enjoyed scoring very much.
Olga made her debut as Official Scorer in 1991 and became one of the longest-serving members of the scoring corps.
She retired after the 2014 season after having been an Official Scorer for 24 years.
In that span, Olga became a well-respected game-official and was much-liked by her scoring colleagues, as well as umpires, coaches and players.
Despite being active for many years, she always was open to learn more about scoring, how to write down some situations or listen to experiences and advice of others.
Olga was always available to fill in as scorer.
She also accepted each invitation to be part of the scoring-crew for the indoor-tournaments that were held since 2010 in Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam and were organized by the staff of the Netherlands National Softball Teams.
In 1998, she belonged to the group of Official Scorers that officiated during one of the first real indoor softball-competitions, which had weekly games for three months.
These competitions also were held in the indoor-facility in Amsterdam.
...Olga Lablans during the 2013 Future Stars...
...Indoor Tournament in Amsterdam with...
...colleagues Huub Nelissen (announcer),...
...Ben Goorts and Stefan Slinger (seated)...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Through the years, Olga also has been one of the international scorers and as such was assigned to several tournaments.
These include European Cup Tournaments for both women and men softball, but also two European Junior Championships, that were held in Rosmalen (Netherlands) in 2012 and 2014.
She concluded her international scoring career at the Women's World Championship in 2014 in Haarlem (Netherlands).
From 2010 through 2015, Olga had been one of the Official Scorers during five of the six Future Stars Indoor Softball Tournaments, that were held annually in February in Amsterdam.
During all these events, but also during competition-games, it always has been fun to work together with Olga, who was a real team-player.
Olga Lablans was currently active as a member of the Financial Committee of baseball/softball-alumni-club De Kieviten and she also was the secretary of the board of the Netherlands Baseball and Softball Museum and Hall of Fame.
As a contributor, she was at the Museum's location in the Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem daily when international events were held there, including last years Baseball Week Haarlem.
In all positions Olga held, she also sometimes could give her clear opinion when needed.
When she didn't liked something, she sounded her voice and let you know, no matter what and no matter to whom.
But always in a matter that would benefit softball in general, as she loved the sport and wanted the best for it.
Olga also could be 'angry' at herself, for example when she wrote something wrongly on the scorecard during a game, which then led to humorous remarks.
However, at the same moment, this was always followed or accompanied by her characteristic broad smile and laugh, which she showed many times and shared with everyone.
And that is something we will surely miss, as well as her friendship and collegiality.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Olga's husband Dick, their daughter Brigitte and other family and wishes them a lot of strength with this huge loss.
(January 17)
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