The Apollo 8 fans jump from their seats. One more point and then the away team from Borne will be national champions for the first time in history. All supporters run to the barricade at the edge of the field to experience this potentially historic moment as close as possible. After three missed attempts, the fourth match point is used. The Bornse supporters can no longer be contained. A number pass the barricades and enter the field, dancing and singing.
Since Apollo 8 first played in the Eredivisie in 2018, the team has been competing at the top of Dutch volleyball. The Born club won the cup tournament in 2021 and 2024. And the final round for the national championship has also been reached twice, in 2021 and 2022. But both times they lost without a chance against Sliedrecht Sport, Saturday evening’s opponent.
This was also in line with expectations on Saturday. Sliedrecht recently won the cup final against Apollo. During the final round, a best-of-five series, the Sliedrechters took a 2-1 lead. An eighth national championship was in the offing. But last Wednesday evening, Apollo 8 managed to level the score in a convincing match. On Saturday evening the team from Borne finished it off in Sliedrecht.
Apollo 8 fans during the decisive match for the national championship.
Eric Brinkhorst
‘Family club’
An hour and a half before the match, many Borne supporters have already arrived at Sporthal De Basis in Sliedrecht. A group, all dressed in Apollo 8 shirts, walks across the street, singing loudly through a megaphone, to get some food further down the road. Every few minutes they are greeted by honking fellow supporters.
Supporter Harold Weerkamp (56) describes Apollo 8 as a warm club. His daughter has been playing in Apollo’s youth team for a number of years and since then they have also regularly attended first team matches. Weerkamp: “I think my daughter already has eight shirts with signatures of each player. The club plays at the highest level, but is as accessible as can be.”
Team manager Gijs Adams sees this warm feeling as the basis for Apollo’s success. “We have a lot of enthusiastic volunteers who want to invest their time in the club. If you don’t have that, everything falls away. Because there is little money,” Adams explains on the phone. According to him, many associations have difficulty finding these volunteers, but Apollo consistently manages to do this. “Twente is of course a region that is known for parenthood. That means that you are there for each other. So there are a lot of people who want to lend a hand.”
Adams himself is a good example of this. Friends asked him to join the club in 2021, and he has been team manager ever since.
Apollo player Lina Berndsen tries to keep a ball in the rally.
Eric Brinkhorst
Eline Rohaan (22), a player in her fourth season at Apollo 8, also speaks of a real family club. “Everyone is extremely involved. You can also have a nice word with everyone. Then you go and have a glass of soft drink with the volunteers after the match.” This also appealed to her before she played with Apollo herself. “Then, after my own matches at a local club, I immediately went to the stands of Apollo as a supporter.”
Apollo supporters loudly cheer for their club.
Eric Brinkhorst
Big ambitions
There was passionate sympathy during the match against Sliedrecht on Saturday evening. The supporters with the megaphones take the lead. They jump around the entire field singing and shouting. With a 2-0 lead in sets – the team that wins three sets becomes national champion – there is hope, but also uncertainty: “We have nothing yet.”
Martin Reesink, chairman of Apollo between 2015 and 2025, was closely involved in the club’s rise. Before that, he already played a role in the construction of a new sports hall for Apollo, with financial support from the municipality. According to Reesink, it illustrates that the Born club is very ambitious. “We wanted to be at the highest level [de Eredivisie] to play. The fact that the municipality wanted to finance that hall shows that they believed it could be done.”
According to Reesink, efforts have also been made in youth training to realize this ambition. It helped that other clubs in the region actually performed less. “We are currently the only club from the East of the Netherlands that plays at such a high level.” This means that players often choose Apollo. Reesink: “And then super talents can then move abroad. At the same time, we also bring players back from abroad. So it’s a bit like the Ajax approach.”
Players and supporters celebrate winning the first national title.
Eric Brinkhorst
With the current success comes new ambitions. “We are now a stable top four club,” says team manager Adams. “Now we want to reach the final round of the competition and the cup final every year.”
The moment Apollo 8 makes the decisive point, Adams runs cheering along the section with the Apollo fans. Every few meters he stops to hug someone again. Adams was on holiday in Spain. He traveled back on Saturday afternoon especially for the final. “But it was more than worth it.”
The players of Apollo 8 take a selfie with the championship bowl.
Eric Brinkhorst
