Toon van Helfteren

Anton "Toon" van Helfteren (born 20 February 1951) is a Dutch former basketball player and current coach of Feyenoord Basketball. Van Helfteren played in the Dutch Basketball League from 1971 till 1990. He was the coach of ZZ Leiden from 2008 till 2014. He also was the coach of the Dutch national basketball team for six years, starting in 2013 and ending in 2019.

Toon van Helfteren
Van Helfteren in 2011
Feyenoord
PositionHead coach
LeagueDutch Basketball League
Personal information
Born (1951-02-20) 20 February 1951
Tilburg, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Listed height2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)
Career information
Playing career1971–1983
Coaching career1990–present
Career history
As player:
1971–1983Punch Delft
1983–1986Elmex Leiden
1986–1990DAS Delft
As coach:
1990–1992DAS Delft
1997–1998EBBC Den Bosch
2000–2001Virtus Werkendam
2001–2005EBBC Den Bosch
2005–2006Amsterdam Astronauts
2007–2008Rotterdam
2008–2014ZZ Leiden
2013–2019Netherlands
2019–presentFeyenoord
Career highlights and awards
As player
As coach

Playing career

Van Helfteren played in the Dutch eredivisie from 1971 till 1990. Between 1983 and 1986 van Helfteren was a member of Elmex Leiden. In 1986 Van Helfteren won the Dutch MVP award.[1] He also played 207 games for the Dutch national basketball team, which makes him the all-time leader in games played for the Netherlands.[2]

Coaching career

Van Helfteren has coached multiple Dutch teams in his coaching career, which include Den Bosch, Werkendam and ABC Amsterdam.

In 2008, Van Helfteren became the coach of Zorg en Zekerheid Leiden. With Leiden, Van Helfteren won the Dutch national championship twice: in 2011 and 2013. He has also won the DBL Coach of the Year award three times when he was with ZZ, in 2010, 2011 and 2012. After the 2013–14 season Van Helfteren left the team, which he won six trophies with.[3]

In 2013, Van Helfteren became the head coach of the Dutch national team. He coached the team before, from 1993 till 1997. He led the team to its first EuroBasket appearance in 25 years. At EuroBasket 2015, the Netherlands had a 1–5 record and was eliminated in the preliminary round.

On 15 April 2019, Feyenoord Basketball announced van Helfteren had signed a two-year contract with the team starting from the 2019–20 season.[4]

Honours

As player

As coach

References
  1. MVP award at j-dus.com (history of Dutch basketball) (in Dutch)
  2. Special milestone for coach Van Helfteren at NBB.nl (July 25, 2013) (in Dutch)
  3. "Leiden neemt afscheid van Van Helfteren". Ad.nl (in Dutch). 2014-05-13. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
  4. "Van Helfteren naar Feyenoord". basketballleague.nl. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
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