‘We want to share this story with the field hockey world. Because we have noticed how beautiful a club can be. How the people who walk around there rise up on the very darkest of days. That, thanks to volunteers, a field hockey team and also opponents, something magical can emerge from something terrible. A vorm of connection. A feeling for which we as parents are very grateful to Oranje-Rood.’
It is the second week of January when we listen in the clubhouse of Oranje-Rood to the impressive words of Baukje Beekman-Roelofs and David Roelofs. Manager and coach of Girls Under 18-3 of the club from Eindhoven. Forever the team of their daughter Guusje, who crashed on Nov. 4 when she was hit by a truck on her bicycle. She was only allowed to turn sixteen.
‘Guusje was a real field hockey girl,’ says her father David. ‘From the age of seven she was at EMHC, where I also played. After the merger she transferred to Oranje-Rood. That was natural, field hockey belonged to her. She loved coming here. Was right at home here.’
‘She loved playing field hockey and trained herself for a while. But the first teams or a selection training, that was nothing for her,’ adds mother Baukje. ‘Guusje’s birthday was on June 30. Around that time the new teams were always announced. Always an exciting moment. She went for fun, but always came to practice. Field hockey with and for her friends. The fun in the locker room. Discovered just a little of the Super Sundays. The parties. The boys.’
Baukje Beekman-Roelofs and David Roelofs in the clubhouse of Oranje-Rood. Photo: Willem Vernis
A place to express the emotions
The world of the Roelofs family and that of Oranje-Rood stood still on that terribly cruel first Monday of November. ‘The news about Guusje came in from all sorts of sides,’ says Pieter Janssen, president of OR. ‘We immediately set up a crisis team, with the secretary and the club manager. All you try to do is to do the best you can. You ask yourself a hundred questions. How can we help? Who are involved? What should we do toward Guus’s team? What are our guiding principles? We had a quick answer to that last question: we adapted completely to the family.’
An upstairs room of the clubhouse was completely reserved for Girls Under 18-3, which was to train that Monday. Nothing came of that, of course. ‘We accommodated the girls and their parents there and above all gave them all the space they needed. As a board – I think – you shouldn’t hang around too much. The girls had a place where they could freely express their emotions. That was the most important thing at that moment.
At the site of the accident – a busy intersection in Eindhoven – a shirt of Oranje-Rood was soon hanging with all the team names on it. At the club, the practical issues were taken care of. A message on the site and social media. Phone calls to confidants at the club. There was a condolence corner in the clubhouse. Contact with the KNHB and the upcoming opponent, Delta Venlo Girls 18-3. Pieter: ‘Because basically the team would play field hockey on Saturday.’ Baukje: ‘And they were going to, we soon heard. Just to honor Guusje. That they said that was heartwarming. But that day itself was even more so.’
The picture of Guusje on the big screen at the field.
Heroines and super friends
With goose bumps they think back to that unreal Saturday, November 9. The game against Delta Venlo, which took on a bizarre connotation. They played on the main field, at four o’clock. David was there, as coach. ‘If the team wants to play for Guusje, I have to be there, right? Then who am I as a coach to stay home for a day?’
He shows footage from that day on his phone. Images from the locker room shoot by. ‘You guys are super friends to Guusje,’ David says on the video to his emotional team. ‘We’re here for Guusje. We’re doing it for her, yes?” it then echoes in the circle. As the game begins, all players on the eight courts of Oranje-Rood stand silent. Hockey is not played again until the minute’s silence on the main field is over. On the giant screen at the edge of that field, a large picture of Guusje is projected. Her name is printed on the sleeves of the shirts of all her teammates, who win the fraught match 1-0. Then they receive a standing ovation from the hundreds of spectators. “You are heroines,” David whispers to them on the clip.
With a sigh, he puts his phone away. ‘Afterwards, there were about seventy of us in the players’ tunnel. I think we were there for about three quarters of an hour. It was deafeningly quiet. All you heard was sniffling and crying. Incredibly sad minutes. But also an extreme sense of connection. From the team, from the club. That whole day impressed us so incredibly. This is what field hockey can stand for. Going through fire for each other. Supporting. In good times, but also in the very worst times.’
The shirt of Oranje-Rood at the scene of the accident.
The old veteran team as support near the dugout.
He takes a sip of water. ‘It’s so incredibly impressive when you come up and see the full stands.’ With a laugh: ‘Like Men’s 1 was playing in the big league. This was magical. Slightly softer: ‘My old veteran team, now almost all quit, was standing by the dugout where I was coaching. That’s what you hope for when you ever play field hockey. That you feel that warmth from each other. Orange-Rood is therefore forever in our hearts.’
Baukje nods, “I’ve spent a lot of hours here. But I’ve never felt the club like I did that day. Everyone was there for each other. And for us. I stood in the crowd, near the players’ tunnel. That’s as far as I went, too. Lots of kisses and hugs. Everyone sympathized. Also the girls from Delta Venlo. It was bizarre and very exciting for them as well. Go figure. They arrived with a big bunch of flowers and sweet balloons for the team. Very beautiful and brave. Unforgettable. All weekend we got pictures and videos from all over the country. Of teams with mourning bands, minutes of silence. As if something had happened to the queen. It was a lot, intense, but above all indescribably nice.
‘The attention didn’t stop,’ David says. ‘From every opponent in the weeks that followed we got flowers. Cranendonck, Asten, they all sympathized. Very thoughtful and involved. But of course we also wanted to play field hockey. Did the girls also have to have fun again. Dancing, laughing. When you see that happening again, you think as a father: how I would have liked to see Guusje here. That sadness never goes away.
Coach David and his team.
Still coach and manager of the team
For a moment there is silence. Then a soft smile returns to David’s mouth. ‘Do you know the team has changed the yell? Now they close with: ‘Who do we win for? Guus! We hear that every week, now even in the hall period. That’s beautiful and nice. That way she still belongs.’
So David and Baukje are still there every game, as coach and team manager. ‘We all liked that. But we immediately said: if it feels unpleasant for the team, we’ll stop. Maybe it helps them and us a little bit. Is it a kind of grieving together. We really don’t do it reluctantly. They are fantastic girls. Baukje: ‘On Saturday they all come to us for lunch. Fortunately, there is a lot of laughter then. Guusje lives on in stories. We make warm memories that are never lost.’
David: ‘Through this drama you really discover how beautiful such a team bond is. How people sympathize with you at the club. How beautiful the sport can be. We realize that much more now than before.’
by Hockey.nl
