Pinnacles men’s team goes Dutch for new coach
The Penticton Tim Hortons Pinnacles tapped into their Dutch connection for their new Pacific Coast Soccer League Premier Men’s Division head coach.
Marinus Barendregt, who has served as head coach of Holland’s Excelsior Rotterdam under-19 team since 2015, was appointed to the same role with the Pinnacles this week.
Barendregt was also the Dalian Airbit U15 coach in 2012-13, and the Ajax AFC Youth Camp Coach from 2010-13. He coached Pinnacles FC graduate and current Thompson Rivers University standout James Fraser when Fraser spent one season with Excelsior in Holland.
The Pinnacles FC youth program has been affiliated with Excelsior Rotterdam — whose men’s team plays in Holland’s top league, the Dutch Eridivisie — for several years.
The 29-year-old Barendregt and Marco van Lochen, who heads up Excelsior Rotterdam’s Youth Academy, will be in Penticton the last week of April and first week of May working with PFC youth players and coaches.
Pinnacles FC youth soccer director Manuel Borba, who will also manage the PCSL men’s team along with Paulo Araujo and Dale Anderson, said Barendregt will train the PCSL team before flying back to Holland for the finish of the Excelsior U19 team’s season.
“Marinus will be back in Penticton at the completion of the Dutch league to take over the PCSL team until the end of the season,” said Borba.
While Barendregt is away, Borba, Araujo and Tom McGill will be in charge with Vancouver’s Chris Bennett also coming to Penticton to run weekly training sessions as a guest coach.
Borba said the PCSL is growing to eight teams this season with TRU (Kamloops) joining the Premier League, which will start in early-May.
“It’s great for us to have another Okanagan team,” said Borba.
Borba noted the Pinnacles youth program has nurtured and developed a growing number of players who have moved on to play at the university level in recent years.
Players such as Xavier Araujo and Issac Koch (U-Vic), Bjorn Borren (Simon Fraser), Bret Depner, Cole Kingzett, Ryan Jarry (UBC-Okanagan), David Bohmer, Michael Bohmer, Kyle Martins (Trinity Western) and Fraser, Jordell Afonso and Brady Vanryswyk (TRU) have graduated from the program and Borba said several of them will be coming home to play for the Pinnacles in the PCSL this season.