Van de Peppel new coach of SCHC next season

Van de Peppel will succeed Gilles van Hesteren after the summer, who was appointed head coach last season following the departure of Lucas Judge. The former player of Laren, Gooische, SCHC and Den Bosch is currently in his third season with Hurley women. Before that, he was coach of Leiden Dames 1 for two seasons.

Two seasons ago, in 2022-2023, Van de Peppel guided Hurley to the play-offs for the first time in club history after a rock-solid season. SCHC were too strong twice in the semi-finals: 0-1 in Amstelveen and 3-1 in Bilthoven.

'I am really enjoying myself at Hurley, I am grateful to the club for the opportunities I have been given and I am proud of what we have achieved in recent years,' said Van de Peppel, who takes his assistant Fergus Kavanagh with him to SCHC. 'Stichtsche is another step up the ladder for me. I look forward to competing for the national championship from my hockey vision, with attractive but result-oriented play.'

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Planned departure Van Hesteren
The departure of Van Hesteren and his assistants Wouter van der Kloet and Frank Balvers did not come out of the blue, board member of top hockey Willem Boot explains. 'We are very happy that Gilles, after Lucas Judge's departure last year, has taken on this job. He was and is the right man at the right time for this group of players. But from the beginning we agreed that it would be only for one season, also in view of Gilles' busy job.'

SCHC is currently second in the Tulp Hoofdklasse, trailing only unbeaten Den Bosch. The Bilthoven-based team reached the final of the play-offs each of the past three seasons, but always failed to win the national title. Also in the two previous finals for the national title - in 2014 and 2015 - the team remained empty-handed.