(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Hans Jansen de Vries & Marco Stoovelaar; Private-photos published with permission)
IN MEMORIAM
...Ben Spel...
(1954 - 2023) |
 Former softball and conditioning coach Ben Spel passed away
Nederlands
 ALMERE (Neth.) -
Ben Spel, who has been a softball-coach for a longtime, unexpectedly passed away on Tuesday, January 24 at age 68.
Through the years, Ben Spel has not only been an on-field coach in softball, he also coached baseball and acted as a conditioning coach in both sports.
Besides that, Ben was active for many years in his own sports-school, located in his hometown Almere.
Unfortunately, Ben has had some health problems in the past few years.
The memorial and cremation service will be held on Thursday, February 2 at 4 PM at Crematorium Almere at the Kruidenweg 3 in Almere.
Afterwards, it is possible to offer condolences to the family.
Benne Cornelis (Ben) Spel was born on September 22, 1954 in Amsterdam.
There, he started his sportive career, before moving with his family to Almere.
His daughter Areke Spel became one of the best softball-players in the Dutch big league and played ten years in the Netherlands Softball Team.
His son Arend Spel played baseball for Almere '90, but later became more involved in conditioning.
Ben Spel was impressive.
You could not overlook him.
His physique was the result of many years of conditioning and weight training.
Later, Ben became a conditioning instructor himself.
Something he did as his own sports-school Ace Gym, which was located at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Sports Park in Almere.
The same site where baseball- and softball-club Almere '90 also is located.
With that, Ben never had to travel far to go to his favorite passions, baseball, softball and fitness.
Ace Gym is a location where everyone can work on his or hers conditions and strenghth, led by an experienced instructor.
Besides that, Ace Gym offers strenghth and conditioning programs for several sports, including MMA (mixed martial arts), boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, judo, swimming, rugby, American footbaal, sprinting, baseball, softball and much more.
Ben's son Arend also was involved at Ace Gym.
Amongst the athletes who trained with Ben at Ace Gym was Gegard Mousasi, a Dutch MMA-fighter of Armenian descent, who is one of the leading performers in the so-called Bellator MMA.
In that division, Mousasi captured the World Champion-title in the Middleweight World Championship in 2018 and 2020.
Another professional and known MMA-fighter who frequently worked out at Ace Gym, was Joey Berkenbosch, the brother of current Amsterdam Pirates-first baseman/outfielder Kenny Berkenbosch.
Joey, who also is a wrestler, also played baseball in the past.
...Ben (left) with fellow-instructors...
...at Ace Gym in 2012...
(© Photo: Private-photo) |
But for many years, Ben Spel also has been closely involved in softball and baseball.
Most of them at Almere '90, where he coached several teams in different age groups, mostly in softball, but also in baseball.
Through the years, Ben regularly coached together with Hans Jansen de Vries and the two became close friends, while coaching and training at Almere '90.
Ben coached one season in the Dutch big league softball.
That was in 2004 when Ben was one of the coaches of the women's softball-team of Amsterdam Pirates in the highest Dutch softball-league.
In that season, Pirates was led by Head Coach Hans Jansen de Vries, assisted by Ben and Sonja Pannen as Pitching Coach.
Kerstin Anthoni and Ger Lange were the Team Scorers.
Former Netherlands Softball Team Head Coach Ruud Elfers was also involved and assisted during the practice sessions.
2004 became a groundbreaking season.
Besides coaching the team, Ben developed a special conditioning program, together with Jansen and Elfers.
It even led to the creation of the Pirates Gym, where the players worked out and strenghtened their conditions.
Ben's innovative exercises and strength program became very successful.
Later, they even were incorporated into the educational booklets that were used during the courses for future softball-coaches.
In the 2004 season, the Pirates softball-team was one of the youngest in the highest league.
The team closed with a 10-20 record and finished in sixth place, to secure it spot in the league for the 2005 season.
Amongst the players who then played for Amsterdam Pirates was Ben's daughter Areke.
Others players included Lisanne van den Berg, Noèmi Boekel, Thekla de Boer, Lot Breetveld, Debbie Buytelaar, Rachel Domacassee, Gallieth Haaker, Graciela Henriquez, Petra van Heijst, Iris Kolman, Claudia Kotmans, Nienke Meester, Nynke Smeets and Marijn van Zetten.
During the 2004 season, Boekel and Van Heijst were selected for the Netherlands Team.
Van den Berg, Domacassee, Meester and Spel were all selected for the Netherlands Junior Team.
Despite having a young team, Jansen en Spel created a solid team that accounted for an early surprise early in the season, as Amsterdam Pirates finished in sixth place during the annual Indoor Cup Tournament in Schiedam in January.
Thekla de Boer was the Best Hitter of the international event.
In 2006, Ben's experiences in the field of conditioning training were also used by the baseball-team of Almere '90.
In that year, he was both the Conditioning Coach as well as an Instructor during the practice sessions of the team, which then played in the Dutch big league.
Back then, Carlos Arrindell started the season as Head Coach, but he was succeeded by Ritchie Daal in July.
Fred van Leeuwen, who has been Almere's chairman for several years, was the Team Manager.
General Manager of the baseball-team that year was Gerard Stenzler, who passed away on Thursday, January 26 at age 90.
In the 2006 season, the baseball-team of Almere '90 was 14-16 with one tie and finished in sixth place to extend its stay in the highest league.
...The softball-team of Amsterdam Pirates in 2004...
...with Ben (right) as Assistant Coach, Hans Jansen de Vries (left)...
...as Head Coach and Sonja Pannen (2nd from left) as Pitching Coach...
...Standing in the back is Team Scorer Ger Lange...
...Areke Spel sits in the front row, fourth from left...
(© Photo: Hans Jansen de Vries) |
Amongst the players in Almere's baseball-team that season were Wesley Bernardus, Jerry Breek, Forstin Coenraad, Ivanon Coffie, Randy Daal, Ricky Daal, Shaldimar Daantji, Bryan Engelhardt, Sidney Ensermo, Jason Halman, Derrick Isenia, Eugène Kingsale, Martin Kuipers, Frank van Leeuwen, Erik Remmerswaal, René Rijst, Giovanni Samboe, Ferd van Stekelenburg, Nick Veltkamp, Jeffrey de Vrieze and Niels van Weert.
Coffie, Engelhardt and Kingsale played in the Netherlands Team that year.
As mentioned, daughter Areke played in the Netherlands Softball Team for ten years.
After having started her softball-career at Almere '90, she went on to play 15 seasons in the Dutch big league for Amsterdam Pirates, Euro Stars, Tex Town Tigers, Sparks Haarlem and DSS.
With the Orange Team, Areke participated in several international tournaments, including four World Championships, three European Championships, two World Cups of Softball and three Canada Cups.
By the way, it was after winning the title at the 2009 European Softball Championship in Valencia (Spain) that Areke took center stage at home plate during the celebrations, just before the awards were handed out.
To settle a promise made before the tournament, surrounded by her teammates, Areke shaved off the mustache of Marco Stoovelaar, the webmaster of this site and back then, the Media Officer of the National Team.
Since then, the moustache has never come back.
Of course, her father Ben also witnessed this as one of the spectators.
When Areke had to play, whether it was in the regular season or at an European Cup-tournament with her club-team, or participating with the Orange Team in an European Championship, Ben was almost always in attendance, off course accompanied by his wife Marjanne.
As a supporter, he always enjoyed himself very much and when needed, he could voice his disagreement.
But above all, he cheered Areke and her teammates throughout the game, the season or a tournament.
Ben never put himself on the foreground and just looked on from the side or the stands.
When you met and talked with Ben, he was always joyful, always relaxed and always had a great big smile on his face.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Ben's wife Marjanne, son Arend, daughter Areke, grandchildren and other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this huge loss.
(January 31)
(private photos published with permission of the family)
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