Paul van Ass (born 16 August 1960,

Bergschenhoek 270px, Town sign Bergschenhoek () is a town and former municipality in the municipality of Lansingerland, in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is situated roughly 10 km to the north of Rotterdam. The town had a population of 18 ...

) is a Dutch

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shootin ...

coach. After coaching for the Dutch club

HGC HGC can stand for: * Human Genetics Commission * Hercules Graphics Card * H.O.C. Gazellen-Combinatie, a Dutch field hockey club * HGC Global Communications, an internet service provider in Hong Kong * HGC (field hockey) H.O.C. Gazellen-Combinatie, ...

, he became the coach of the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

, managing them at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the men's tournament. After his contract expired in 2014, he was declared the coach of the Indian team in 2015.

Career

Club career

In his first major coaching position, head coach of the men's team of

, van Ass managed to save the team from degradation and lead them to a championship final in 2007, which was credited to his "opportunistic" style of coaching. HGC lost that game to

HC Bloemendaal Hockey Club Bloemendaal (), commonly known as Bloemendaal, is a Dutch field hockey club based in Bloemendaal, North Holland. It was established on 26 April 1895, and is one of the oldest field hockey clubs in the Netherlands. Originally, the club ...

. Van Ass's HGC reached the final of the

Euro Hockey League 2007–08 The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

after beating

HC Rotterdam Hockey Club Rotterdam, commonly known as Rotterdam is a Dutch field hockey club based in Rotterdam, South Holland. It was founded on 16 September 1925. The first men's team competes on the highest level of the Dutch field hockey league, which is c ...

in the semi-final, but lost to

Uhlenhorster HC Uhlenhorster Hockey-Club e. V. (also known as UHC Hamburg) is a German professional field hockey and tennis club based in Hamburg. It was founded in 1901, since 1923 their home ground is located in Hummelsbüttel, Wandsbek. Uhlenhorster HC is one ...

in overtime. In the 2008–2009 season, he coached ''Jong Oranje'' (the men's under-21 national team) and was assistant-coach for the Netherlands national field hockey team; he returned to coach HGC (which had a disappointing season under Alexander Cox) for the 2009-2010 season. That team reached the final in the national championship, losing again to Bloemendaal, and qualified for the

Euro Hockey League 2010–11 The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . T ...

National team

Despite having limited international experience, van Ass was appointed coach of the national team in June 2010, after was let go. The appointment came as a surprise: van Ass got the position in favor of Marc Lammers or another international top coach.

Olympic selection controversy

Besides not having a coaching certificate, van Ass did not select seasoned internationals Taeke Taekema and

Teun de Nooijer Teun Floris de Nooijer (born 22 March 1976) is a field hockey player from the Netherlands, who twice became Olympic champion with the Dutch national squad, in 1996 and in 2000, and was on the team in 2012. He curre ...

(nicknamed "T&T"), the country's best known hockey players and icons of the sport. He cut the two from the national selection in January 2012. To justify his choice criticized them in an interview with ''

de Volkskrant ''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized ...

'' a few days later, for which he was accused of

character assassination "Character Assassination" is a four-issue Spider-Man story arc written by Marc Guggenheim with art by John Romita, Jr. and published by Marvel Comics. The arc appears in '' The Amazing Spider-Man'' #584-#588. An interlude, "The Spartacus Gambi ...

, and he later apologized for his words. After a public backlash Van Ass apologized to T&T at the end of January and took them back in March, his credibility having suffered greatly, but cut them again in July.

2012 Olympics

The Dutch team played their opening game in

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportsc ...

against

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, beating them 3–2, and rallied against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

in their second match to beat them 3–1, thanks to

penalty corner In field hockey, a penalty corner, sometimes known as a short corner, is a penalty given against the defending team. It is predominantly awarded for a defensive infringement in the '' penalty circle'' or for a deliberate infringement within the de ...

specialist

Mink van der Weerden Mink Alphons Louis van der Weerden (; born 19 October 1988) is a Dutch field hockey player who plays as a defender for German Bundesliga club Rot-Weiss Köln. He started playing hockey at HCAS and has since also played for Oranje Zwart and O ...

. The team reached the final by demolishing Great Britain 9-2, but lost to Germany, 2-1.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ass, Paul van 1960 births Living people Dutch male field hockey players Dutch field hockey coaches People from Lansingerland HGC coaches Sportspeople from South Holland