“I had quite a bit of trouble putting the periods and commas in the right place,” 22-year-old Loïs de Bont from Castricum admits honestly. Because of her autism, she sometimes got stuck on the grammar rules, but she didn’t let herself get off track. Her perseverance resulted in the book Hockeyafscheid van Heren één, about the Overbos flagship.
Especially for this interview, Lois moved her work a few hours. Instead of in the morning, she now starts in the afternoon at the Old Kitchen in Bakkum, a restaurant where the staff is partly made up of people with disabilities. For a year and a half now, Lois has enjoyed working there as a waitress.
By phone, she talks enthusiastically about how the idea arose to follow Overbos Men 1 for a year and record their adventures in a book. Her heart has been beating faster with field hockey for years. She herself has played parahockey at Overbos for fourteen consecutive seasons. But in recent years, in addition to her stick, her notepad has been going to the club more and more often.
‘I always liked to write,’ she says. ‘One day I was sitting along the line at a Men’s 2 home game, taking notes in my notebook. One of the players saw me and asked what I was doing. When I told him I was writing a report of the match, he responded enthusiastically. He said, ‘How good, then I won’t have to do that myself.’
The cover of the book Hockey Farewell to Men’s One.
Farewell to the ‘Big Five’ at Overbos Men’s 1
It was this kind of enthusiastic response that encouraged her to write a book about field hockey. She decided to focus on Men’s 1. Throughout the 2022/2023 season, she didn’t skip a single home game.
She fell head over heels: it turned out to be the last season of the “Big Five,” the five oldest players on the squad, who have cult status within the club. But not only did they say goodbye, the entire technical staff waved goodbye as well. In sporting terms, it was also a season not easily forgotten: ninth place narrowly avoided relegation from the First Division.
“The book takes the reader through the entire season,” Loïs summarizes. Before and after the games she spoke with the players, who eagerly told her what was going on within the team. She also kept a close eye on the posts on Men’s 1’s social media. The result is a mix of non-fiction and fiction. ‘During the winter break, the team went on a training trip, but I didn’t attend that. So I tried to write what it might have been like. So some things are made up. After all, it’s a book, so I thought: that’s okay, right?” she laughs.
Despite her autism, Loïs de Bont wrote a book about Overbos Heren 1.
The publisher kept wanting me to adjust things. It was quite difficult, but with some help I finally succeeded Loïs de Bont
Loïs deliberately left her notes for a while after the season ended. She first focused entirely on her first book: Madness at IJSJE&ZO, a story about an ice cream store where employees with and without disabilities experience all kinds of adventures. This book was published in November 2023. She submitted the first draft of Hockey Farewell to Men’s One to the publisher last August.
She says it was a tough delivery. Because of her autism, she sometimes got stuck on grammar rules during the writing process. “This book was close to never being published. It was touch and go. The publisher kept wanting me to adjust things. Finally I got one last chance to make the improvements. Then I started working hard to put all the dots and commas in the right place. It was quite difficult, but with some help I finally succeeded.’
The result was released on Friday. She has already had the book in her hands. ‘I’m super proud of it. I’m also curious to see what the players of Men’s 1 think of it. Over the next few weeks, life at the club will slowly pick up, so I hope to be able to show them the result as soon as possible.’
Does writing about field hockey now taste like more? ‘My third book will be on a different subject. But I have plenty of ideas. Field hockey continues to fascinate me. So who knows.’
by Hockey.nl
