Van Ass names Netherlands squad for winter camps

Netherlands men’s coach Paul van Ass has named his 22 man squad that will take part in two elite training camps this winter. The first of the camps takes place in Alicante, Spain from 16^th to 25^th January before the group heads to the Australian city of Perth for the second phase.
The selection contains a number of players returning to for the fold following injuries, including Oranje Zwart defender Marcel Balkestein and attacker Floris Evers of Amsterdam H.&.B.C. However, the group will be missing long time servants Teun de Nooijer (445 caps) and Taeke Taekema (240 caps) as Van Ass aims to test other options ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
“Of course I realize that Teun and Taeke have a lot of experience and have done a lot for Dutch hockey,” said Van Ass of his decision to leave out the veteran stars.  “However, we need to create space for other players in the team to grow. At the Olympics I want to have the best team and that is not automatically the best 18 players.”
As well as De Nooijer and Taekema, Seve van Ass, goalkeeper Sam van der Ven and Melchior Looijen have also been left out of the group that will travel to Spain and Australia. Seve van Ass and Van der Ven will rejoin the program in March, although Melchior Looijen is no longer part of the Olympic training group.
Netherlands Squad – Winter training camps, Spain & Australia
Sander Baart                         M.H.C. Oranje-Zwart
Billy Bakker                            Amsterdamsche H. & B.C.
Marcel Balkestein                 M.H.C. Oranje-Zwart
Pirmin Blaak (GK)                 H.C. Rotterdam
Quirijn Caspers                     S.V. Kampong
Laurence Docherty               S.V. Kampong
Floris Evers                           Amsterdamsche H. & B.C.
Jeroen Hertzberger              H.C. Rotterdam
Rogier Hofman                     H.C. Bloemendaal
Robert van der Horst           H.C. Rotterdam
Tim Jenniskens                   H.C. Bloemendaal
Wouter Jolie                         H.C. Bloemendaal
Robbert Kemperman          Rot-Weiss Köln
Eby Kessing                        H.C. Bloemendaal
Floris van der Linden          H.G.C.
Jaap Stockmann (GK)        H.C. Bloemendaal
Valentin Verga                    Amsterdamsche H. & B.C
Klaas Vermeulen                Amsterdamsche H. & B.C.
Bob de Voogd                     M.H.C. Oranje-Zwart
Mink van der Weerden         M.H.C. Oranje-Zwart
Roderick Weusthof             H.C. Rotterdam
Sander de Wijn                   S.V. Kampong
 
Source Material : KNHB Media Release