Nick Stienstra

Nick Stienstra

Personal information
Date of birth	(1954-12-24)24 December 1954
Date of death	7 June 1989(1989-06-07) (aged 34)
Place of death	Paramaribo, Suriname
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	SV Robinhood
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nick Stienstra (24 December 1954 – 7 June 1989) was a Dutch-Surinamese footballer and coach. During his playing career he played for SV Robinhood. He was killed at the age of 34 in the Surinam Airways Flight PY764 air crash in Paramaribo on 7 June 1989.

Career

In his playing career Stienstra played at SV Robinhood before he moved to the Netherlands, where he was unable to sign on with a professional football club. Instead, he became determined to become a successful coach and started taking courses to become a football coach. In the meantime he was already coaching amateur side RCH from Heemstede. One of his ambitions was to return to Suriname to professionally develop Surinamese football.

He was appointed by Sonny Hasnoe, the founder of the Colourful 11, to coach the team in Suriname for the "Boxel Kleurrijk Tournament" against three Surinamese teams. The Surinam Airways Flight PY764 crashed during approach to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport, killing 176 of the 187 passengers on board, including Stienstra, making it the worst aviation disaster in Suriname's history. Of the 18 members of the Colourful 11, there were only three survivors. Stienstra was the only victim of the crash to be buried in Suriname.

References

• Stienstra at AndroKnel.nl Archived 4 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine (in Dutch)
• Crash report
• Iwan Tol: Eindbesteming Zanderij; het vergeten verhaal van het Kleurrijk Elftal (ISBN 9020403664) (in Dutch)