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First intersquad game in the books; NOC-official visits game
 Nederlandse tekst
AMSTERDAM (Netherlands) -
After conducting its first indoor practice of the new year nine days ago, the Dutch National Softball Team today played its first intersquad game of their new indoor-season, nicknamed 'Tulip League'.
This was the first of five scheduled intersquad games to be played before the team leaves for Florida at the end of February for a 2-week Spring Training in the USA.
All intersquad games are to be played on Friday, starting around 12:00 PM and are free for the public to attend.
No game is scheduled for Friday, February 18.
In today's intersquad game there were some attractive moments.
In the game, in which all players got four plate appearances, we saw four doubles, a double play, some line drives, stolen bases and yes there were also strikeouts, walks and caught baserunners.
And of course, we again had two umpires.
Albert Jung and Martin Lemstra, thank you for being in Amsterdam and participating in the game.
Today's practice and intersquad game were attended by Roelant Oltmans, the Performance Manager for Team Sports of the Netherlands Olympic Committee (NOC*NSF).
Oltmans himself played baseball for DVH in Amstelveen where he was a teammate of Don Wedman, who later went on to become the Head Coach of the Dutch National Softball Team.
Later, Oltmans played softball for HCAW in Bussum.
But of course, he is more famous as a hockey-coach, as he was the Head Coach of both the National Women Hockey Team and National Men Hockey Team.
In 1990, he led the women team to a world championship title in Sydney (Australia).
Oltmans guided the men team to the European title in 1995, Olympic gold during the Olympic Games in Atlanta (USA) in 1996, the world title in 1998 in Utrecht (Netherlands) and also won two Champions Trophies.
In 2004, he was the Head Coach of the National Hockey Team of Pakistan during the Olympic Games in Athens (Greece).
Hereafter, Oltmans returned to the Dutch Men Hockey Team in 2005 and retired after the Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing (China), where the squad finished in fourth place.
Since June 1, 2009, Roelant Oltmans is the Performance Manager for Team Sports within the technical staff of NOC*NSF's Technical Director Maurits Hendriks.
Oltmans is one four Performance Managers, the others being André Cats (Paralympic sports), Frans van Dijk (winter sports) and Ad Roskam (individual sports).
A Performance Manager is responsible for the improvement of the topsport-programs and assist with the development and execution of high-quality sport-technical programs.
Since 2008, Oltmans is an ambassador of Right To Play, like the Dutch Women Softball Team, which joined the organization in June 2009.
Head Coach Craig Montvidas addresses the group of players before the start of today's practice
Umpires Martin Lemstra and Albert Jung
Pitchers Rebecca Soumeru and Lindsey Meadows
Dinet Oosting, Marisèla de Wind, Fabienne van Uden and Nathalie Gosewehr
look on, while Saskia Kosterink is hitting; Karin Tuk is the catcher, Albert Jung the umpire
During the game, Head Coach Craig Montvidas had several talks
Marisèla de Wind hitting with Karin Tuk behind the plate
Dinet Oosting awaits a pitch
Nathalie Gosewehr takes her postion at first base
In the back, umpire Martin Lemstra watches the pitcher
This also was a practice game for the umpires
Veteran Albert Jung explains something to his colleague Martin Lemstra
Roelant Oltmans, the performance manager of the Netherlands Olympic Committee,
visited today's practice and attended the game
Nathalie Franssen, the Assistant Coach of the Junior Red Team, assisted Craig Montvidas
Head Coach Craig Montvidas makes notes during the game...
...and also had a talk with Roelant Oltmans
Oh, oh, Virginie Anneveld has discovered the photographer...
Sitting besides her are Karin Tuk and Nadine Marinus
Coach Karen Marr works with pitcher Dagmar Bloeming
Time for another meeting
Pitchers Femke van Dusschoten and Dagmar Bloeming
Solange Starrenburg is ready to make contact; Dinet Oosting is the catcher
Areke Spel running at second base
Fabienne van Uden shows the BuntDownBat with Solange Starrenburg doing the catching
The Dutch Team uses and promotes this specially designed training device during its practice sessions
The practice ended with a conditioning program conducted by new Physical Therapist Ingrid Holstege
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