Coach Marco Wevers who plays for the Hengelo Giants Club trains the baseball team every Wednesday evening, preparing them to compete in league games on weekends. Taking firm root at the UT and founded in 1987, the HTH Club started out as a group of friends who could combine fun with sports.
Nowadays Trudy Miller, head trainer of the HTH softball team who has played softball for the last thirty years, starts each training session on Tuesdays with a run around the field, warming-up exercises, catching and throwing practice, followed by infield technical drills and finishing with batting training. `They are a good bunch of students,' pipes Miller whose husband Seirgei, a PhD candidate in the construction management & engineering department, coached her when she represented the western province in the South African National Championships. `My husband umpired in South Africa. He also worked for the Dutch Umpires Association during his studies in Delft and still umpires games at Tex Town Tigers,' the local club that clinched the ladies first team national championship just last year.
Miller makes no contentions about her reasons for long time involvement in the sport. `Softball is really a good stress reliever for men and women of all ages, mostly because in a team sport, you not in it only for yourself. At my age, I now prefer to play on a mixed team (men and women), where there is no pressure to win.' The makeup of a recreational team, says Miller, creates a learning and social environment where the skill level of players varies to such a degree that each player must adapt to the strengths and weakness of their teammates, requiring in her opinion, much tolerance but the reward is lasting friendships.
A student in chemical engineering, Ken Bijkerk along with his fellow teammates, recently played in the mixed recreational tournament against eleven national competitors at Tex Town Tigers on the Kotkampweg in Enschede. `I love the relaxed atmosphere,' says Bijkerk, ` No arguments. No fighting with the umpires. It's all for fun.' The university team earned seventh place in the competition against 11 teams, winning two games and losing two in a close match against a high-ranked team from Groningen. In this tournament, says Ellen Norde, a bachelor's student in Advanced Technology, `We thought that we'd be slaughtered because Caribe was good, but Henk was pitching very well, and we lost with only a two-point difference. Tournaments are always a good way to learn the game.'
Outside the `rigors' of the once a week training sessions, ending sometimes with a cold beer and burger, naturally ball players find more occasions to unwind, socializing at Christmas dinners and cocktail parties to keep the ball rolling off-season.
Bijkerk, who has played the game for the past six years, says he prefers softball over baseball. `When you play baseball, the game is more static with less movement. Softball games, on the other hand, continuously flows which allows for increased dynamics in the game.'
Closing out the regular season for the HTH softball and baseball teams, a whole weekend of games will take place, as Dutch and German competitors measure their skills in the Double Swing tournament, starting on September 25 and highlighted with a party on Saturday night, featuring the one man trash band Ottoboy.
The HTH team is offering an introduction training on September 19, open to all UT, ITC, Saxon students and employees with an Xtra-card or Sports card, and the membership fee is reasonable priced, 22 euros for one year, contact Ellen Norde: 06-13 128 683 or email [email protected]. Check the website for more information: http://batgeheimen.student.utwente.nl/
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| The High Tech Hitters played on the Cottenfields in its fourth annual softball tournament against Dutch regional and national teams at the Tex Town Tigers Club in Enschede on Saturday, September 6. Photo: Joop Mazenier |
