THE KATWIJK TALENTS WIN FROM THE NATIONAL TALENTS

CTO Amsterdam houses the largest number of talented players in The Netherlands. STOL-Grasshoppers house the largest number of talented players in ……Katwijk. That seems an unequal match, but STOL-Grasshoppers won Saturday from CTO (61-57), and it was well-deserved.

CTO Amsterdam, the Center for Topsport and Education, is an individual education program, where all players (all youth internationals) are kept busy at least 20 hours a week with basketball while they are guided with their study. To the displeasure of many 1st Division clubs, who lost their talented young players, the CTO also has a team playing in the competition.

Three of STOL-Grasshoppers players (Karin Kuijt, Eline Kraaijenoord, and Randell van der Lee) follow the program at CTO, but play for the Katwijk club in the competition. “It’s a question of making good agreements.” explains coach Bo Melis. “They train with us at least 2 of the 4 team trainings in the week. Like this, it’s good for everyone.” An additional benefit is that the STOL-Grasshoppers players felt a lot more comfortable during the match than the CTO team, who demonstrated little selfconfidence and seemed unable to deal with the stress on Saturday.

STOL-Grasshoppers are awaiting the arrival of Kelli Valentine, the American power forward who will be replacing Lauren Beckley who left Katwijk before playing a competition match. Valentine will arrive at the end of the week and is expected to make her debut in about 2 weeks.

Against CTO, coach Melis missed his experienced guard, Corine Manuputty, because of a shoulder injury. All in all, it would be extremely difficult to beat favorite CTO, with former Leiderdorp players Zera Butter, Willemijn Kallenberg, Maxime Essenstam, and Richelle van der Keijl. “They expected to walk over us,” says coach Melis with a smile after the match in Cleijn Duin.

Twice, at the beginning of the match and halfway in the 3rd quarter, it looked like the home team was in for a big loss. But STOL-Grasshoppers was not impressed, kept playing as a team, and continually had a player who managed an important acton. Van der Lee excelled especially in the first half, Karin Kuijt and her younger sister Sonja were good for important scores, Kraaijenoord was strong under the board, and Ingrid van der Plas suddenly took charge with 2 sharp 3-pointers.

STOL-Grasshoppers kept the plays simple, profited from the fumbling of the Amsterdam team, and fought their way back in the game. The home team took a small lead in the last minutes of the match and then Rianne Philippo, Saturday the only STOL-Grasshoppers player with serious 1st Division experience, dashed any hope that CTO had with a 3-pointer: 57-50. Van der Plas stayed cool and made the last 4 free throws, awarded when CTO attempted to gain ball possesion in the last minute.

“We played to get our rhythm back”, says coach Melis, “I can’t complain about our determination, but we had a couple of matches when our focus and performance were under par. The performance can be improved, but the focus was there.”

STOL-Grasshoppers – CTO Amsterdam 61-57 (11-12, 17-11, 13-21, 20-13)

Scores STOL-Grasshoppers: Philippo 13, Van der Plas 12, Van der Lee 9, Karin Kuijt 8, Dijkman 8, Sonja Kuijt 6, Kranstauber 3, Kraaijenoord 2.