Stubborn basketball coach Maarten van Gent (1947-2025) was also looking for love in Estonia

Van Gent posted a nude photo on Facebook at the end of February. It was removed quickly. He also put a video online, not naked, with the words: « He came and planted and is ready to leave. » Van Gent liked to spoke in the third person about his fairly turbulent life. « Then others don’t have to do that. So they don’t have to tell what a violent person I was or how good I was. And not a sad ‘Stories’, because I don’t like that either. I hate funerals. »

Van Gent made his body available to science. « Then they also have something to cut, » explained the man who was known for his little subtle vocabulary.

About her experiences at Winter full says Annette de Groot: « I was the last of the four, with the other women he had nothing, he said. Maarten said to me: » With basketball I also let the best players start on the couch.  » She was initially waiting, she says, but soon she thought « to get to know this man better. » She felt at his home in Estonia, as brother and sister. He took her to restaurants. And wanted more. She: « Maarten was a sweets. » For me, sex is going to go to the baker, « he often said. But I didn’t feel physically attracted to him, wanted my own bedroom, and eventually I packed my suitcases. He didn’t like that, the big Maarten who was rejected. I noticed that by his mood. »

Self -fence

Van Gent was and remained his own heimer. Four decades before his performance Winter full As a basketball coach of the Groningen top club Donar, he was already standing out for his stubborn way of doing it. Between 1980 and 1982 he built a close team. Those who were not allowed to or should be in the collective, such as public favorite Renso Zwiers. Conversely, he got discarded top players from the competitors from Den Bosch (Al Faber) and Leiden (Ron Kruidhof). They were extra motivated, he knew, and would cherish revanche feelings against their old club.

He was right. After a moderately first season, Donar became the Dutch Champion for the first time under his leadership. He himself trivialized his share in success, but players, supporters and journalists knew better. He had labeled the latter group according to Cruijffian model as a joint enemy.

Dick Heuvelman was a basketball reporter during this period Newspaper (now Newspaper) northern. According to him, Van Gent left an indelible impression in Groningen. « We had the most beautiful hall here, the best sponsor, but never became champions. His first year was a flop year, he didn’t bake it. In his second year he got a free hand buying and selling. Renso Zwiers was too good for the bank, according to Maarten. »

« He didn’t exactly leave with silent drum. It all had to be dramatic ‘

Also in the jubilee book 50 years Donar Van Gent noted that the national title was not his merit. « From winning coaches who take the praise, my pants always drop. It is the players who do it. You can coach a little and you have the best players, then you win. Simple. » Although the success coach had earned contract extension, he unexpectedly resigned. But not then after he had given some drivers a kick. Former player Martin de Vries: « He did not exactly leave with silent drum. It all had to be dramatically. Typically Maarten. »

After the success period at Donar, Van Gent was the national coach of the Netherlands and Estonia, among others. He also won the Belgian title with Ostend in 1985. He moved to Estonia in the early 90s, which had just become independent – he saw a gap in the free market. He also became a club trainer of Tallinn Kalev, with whom he won the national title in 1996. In the Netherlands he also worked for Weert, Rotterdam and Den Bosch. But the title with Donar remained his sporting highlight.

Martin de Vries was in the early twenty and banker when Maarten van Gent became Donar’s trainer in 1980. « He asked on an open day if I sometimes squashed. I was stupidly amazed. A game of squash was his way to start a conversation. He then said: » You will be the number one, I want you to stay there. « 

De Vries talks about Van Gent’s psychological games. « He once stopped dissatisfied with the training, said » Find it out, « and walked out of the room. We were shocked, searched him, but he had already driven home. The next day he was still not there. We trained without Maarten. When he later heard that, he was satisfied: he thought we had to come back. He had his laughing capacity anyway. worked. ”

De Vries calls another example of his original, quirky approach. « He hired a kind of Jomanda for the play-offs in that champion year, a hand trailer, someone from Dordrecht with telepathic gifts. I don’t know if it was due, but we won everything afterwards. »

After 1982 the contact between the former trainer and the former player. But apparently it was not out of sight. De Vries: « On April 7, a week before his death, he sent me a congratulation on my birthday. Great right? »

Annette de Groot out Winter full Although ‘on television’ had left him, she kept in touch with Maarten van Gent, who is now sick of Ghent, after the recordings. « When I saw that ‘nude selfie’ on Facebook, I immediately contacted. I applied: » For me you stay the prince on the white horse. « I was the last one with whom Maarten had been in the picture, but was ultimately only a one-day fly in his life, honest is fair. »

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