Andy Tenbult

Andy Tenbult was a Canadian center with Dutch ancestry born in a small village called Onaping, Ontario, Canada. On the icerink of nearby village Levack he learned to play hockey. As a 19 year-old rookie he arrived in The Netherlands in 1979. Danny Cuomo, who played with Tenbult’s elder brother in Levack, brought him to Nijmegen in 1987, after playing in Geleen for 5 years and Valkenburg for 1 year. In his active playing career he played for Assen, Valkenburg, Geleen and Nijmegen. When playing for Geleen he formed a line with Jamie Conroy. Strong skills of Tenbult as a player were his strong passing-game and his ability to make other players play better. Even during his playing career he became a solid part of the renowned youth program that produced of lot of talented youngsters.

During his career he acted as a player/coach 1 year during the 1990/1991 season at Nijmegen but after this first year he decided that year he would rather play again. So he continued to do that and helped Nijmegen clinch the title in 1993. After the dramatic season 1993/1994, when Nijmegen went bankrupt, he was one of the players that decided to stay with the club to help rebuild it to its former glory. He succeeded and slowly Nijmegen became again a force to be reckoned with in Dutch icehockey. In the 1994-1995 season he started out with some talented youngsters, like Tenbult coaching to Groningen GrizzliesMark Visschers and Jordy Geesink, and a few more experienced players, like Frank Janssen, Ronnie Plamont en the Stoer brothers.

After that first year also Theo Kruger, Tommie Speel and Robert Herckenrath returned to Nijmegen and they were able to win the Dutch cup. Without doubt can be said that Tenbult was one of the persons in Dutch icehockey that helped save Nijmegen when they were in their darkest hour. Andy Tenbult is still active in Dutch hockey today. He coached both the Groningen Grizzlies as HYS The Hague during the 2007-2008 season.