(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Jan Kruijdenberg & Henk Seppen)
 Ton van Koeverden new Head Coach of Hoofddorp Pioniers
Nederlands
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Veteran softball-coach Ton van Koeverden will be the Head Coach of the women's softball-team of Hoofddorp Pioniers next season, he confirmed on Saturday (November 13).
In 2022, Van Koeverden be assisted by Berend Mannessen, who led the team as Head Coach this season.
The past three seasons, Van Koeverden coached the softball-team of UVV in the second highest league.
...Ton van Koeverden...
...as Head Coach...
...of UVV in 2020...
(© Ph: Jan Kruijdenberg) |
This season, Hoofddorp Pioniers had a tough season in the highest league and relegated to the First Division.
After finishing in last place last season, Berend Mannessen returned as Head Coach.
After a lot of players as well as the coaching-staff had left the team after the 2020 season, Mannessen agreed to help the club again and returned as coach.
Mannessen has a long history in coaching softball-teams at Pioniers and this season, he led a young team with several talented players.
Before the start of the season both Mannessen as well as the players knews that it would be a difficult one.
In its third big league-season, Pioniers remained winless and lost all 42 games played.
Last year, the team also was without a win and then lost 23 games in what was not only a shortened season, but also a season that ended abruptly due to measures against the coronavirus (COVID-19).
As the team closed the 2019 with a loss, Pioniers got a 66-game losing streak when the 2021 season ended.
Coming season, Mannessen would be the Head Coach again of Pioniers, while Van Koeverden would be his Assistant Coach.
However, recently, Mannessen suggested that the two would reverse their roles, meaning he will assist Van Koeverden.
Marianne Spaan, who was the Pitching Coach this season, also will come back.
Looking ahead to the new season, Van Koeverden said:
,,I think we have a good group of players coming year.
We want to play agressively with speed on the bases''.
As of now, the team has added seven new players to its roster, while five players of this year either stopped or went to another club.
Coming Monday (November 15), the annual transfer-period ends in softball.
All transfers will then be published on this website when they become official.
Ton van Koeverden played baseball for Amsterdam-based Rap and he also played for the club after it has changed its name to Amsterdam Pirates in 1974.
Later, he played several years in the softball-team of Thamen in what then was the highest league.
And thereafter, Van Koeverden turned to coaching and became a member of the coachingstaff of the Netherlands National Men Softball B-Team.
In 2005, Van Koeverden made his coaching debut in the women's softball big league when he was the Assistant Coach of Glyniss Kenepa at DSC '74 (which is the current Olympia Haarlem).
A year later, he took over as Head Coach of the Haarlem-based club and led the team for two seasons, being assisted by Caroline Theunissen and Rinie Scheele in respectively 2006 and 2007.
Van Koeverden guided the team to fifth place in 2006 and and a tie for fourth place in 2007, which it shared with Twins Oosterhout.
However, DSC '74 missed the Play-Offs that year, as the head-to-head games played between the two teams were in favor of Twins.
In 2008, Van Koeverden was the Head Coach of the softball-team of Centrals, also in the highest league, with Wendell Paula as his Assistant Coach.
The team finished in seventh place, but secured a spot in the big league for the 2009 season after winning the Promotion/Relegation Series against Onze Gezellen.
...Ton van Koeverden as Head Coach of Euro Stars in 2010...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In 2009, Ton van Koeverden was the Assistant Coach of Leo Buiteman at the big league softball-team of Euro Stars.
He then was to be the Assistant Coach again in 2010, but a week before the start of that season, Buiteman stepped down and Van Koeverden took over as Head Coach.
Euro Stars finished in sixth place, then secured its big league-spot for the 2011 season in the Play-Downs, but the team withdraw a month before the start of the season.
In 2011, Van Koeverden was the Head Coach of the big league-team of Twins Oosterhout, assisted by former player Daisy de Peinder.
He led the softball-team to sixth place in the regular season.
The team then ended up in second place in the following Play-Downs to secure a spot in the big league for the following season.
But after completion of the 2011 season, Twins and Van Koeverden separated and De Peinder took over as Head Coach.
Hereafter, in 2012, Ton van Koeverden was the Head Coach of the women's softball-team of Amsterdam Pirates, assisted by Rob Korpel, in the second highest league (Overgangsklasse), which then finished in third place.
The following season, in May 2013, Pirates and Van Koeverden separated after eight games, as he was unable to combine coaching with his regular work and also due to personal circumstances.
Korpel succeeded Van Koeverden as Head Coach.
Van Koeverden was to return to coaching in 2014 after being named the Head Coach of Hoofddorp Pioniers, which then played in the First Division, which was then the third highest league.
However, before the start of the season, he stepped down and Luigi Anasagasti took over the coaching-duties.
From that moment on, Ton van Koeverden didn't coach for five seasons, through 2018.
But he returned to the field in 2019, this time as Head Coach of UVV, which played in the Silver League (which had become the new name of the second highest league) and added some young players to its roster.
In his three seasons at UVV, Van Koeverden was assisted by Jeroen van Saaze.
This season, Robin Stoevelaar also joined the coaching-staff and he took over as Head Coach a month before the end of the season when Van Koeverden stepped down.
(November 14)
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