Hockey India, on Thursday, appointed the seasoned and highly successful former Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans as high performance director, a step to chalk out a strategic program for the senior and junior teams, both men and women. Oltmans, who coached Holland for 14 years, has in his resume an Olympic gold and two World Cup triumphs, besides guiding the Orange to three Champions Trophy titles. He played a crucial role in shaping and overseeing the Dutch’s golden generation. Oltmans, who also coaches Uttar Pradesh Wizards, feels India has no dearth of talent, despite its plaguing underachievement. “I believe that there is a lot of talent in India and by having a proper plan in place we will be able to raise the level of Indian Hockey in the near future,” he said,
Oltmans said he is really excited to be signing with Hockey India in the first ever role as Director, High Performance. “Our dream is to bring the glory back to the country. We need to work hard on a single platform that too with the unity, encouraging our players and giving them the right direction which will help our dream to come true,” said Oltmans, who also had a brief stint with the Pakistan men’s team in 2003.
Oltmans, it is learned that, would be involved in preparing the senior men’s and women’s teams for the FIH World League and Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.