[7] That team reached the final in the national championship,[8] losing again to Bloemendaal, and qualified for the Euro Hockey League 2010–11.
[8] The appointment came as a surprise:[2] van Ass got the position in favor of Marc Lammers or another international top coach.
[8][9] Besides not having a coaching certificate,[10][11] van Ass did not select seasoned internationals Taeke Taekema and Teun de Nooijer (nicknamed "T&T"[12]), the country's best known hockey players and icons of the sport.
[14] To justify his choice criticized them in an interview with de Volkskrant a few days later, for which he was accused of character assassination,[10] and he later apologized for his words.
[15] After a public backlash Van Ass apologized to T&T at the end of January[16] and took them back in March, his credibility having suffered greatly,[17] but cut them again in July.