Paul
Assaiante Retires As Trinity College’s Head Men’s Squash Coach After 29
Years and 17 National Team Championships by Rob Dinerman Dateline March 17,
2023
--- Earlier this week Paul Assaiante, 70, whose legendary career as the
head coach of the Trinity College men’s squash team has been
highlighted by 17 Potter Cups emblematic of the men’s national team
college championship, including 13 in a row from 1999-2011; 22 Potter
Cup final-round appearances during the 23-year period from 1997-2019
(with one more to follow in 2023, hence 23 finals overall); and a
252-match winning streak, announced that is he retiring after 29 years
at the helm. “I have plenty left to give and still feel as passionate
as ever about helping Trinity College,” he said. “But my body has
betrayed me and the men deserve a younger and more vibrant person to
lead them forward.”
Although the 13 straight titles, 23 Potter
Cup finals (including 19 in a row from 1997-2015) and 252 consecutive
dual-meet victories are all not only record-breaking but record-shattering
figures --- the previous records were six straight national team
championships, seven consecutive Potter Cup final-round advances and 72
dual-meet wins in a row, and the 252 figure represents the longest
winning streak in the history of intercollegiate varsity sports
(meaning any sport, not just
squash) --- the numbers alone are only part of Assaiante’s overall
multi-front legacy. So too are the many honors he has received over the
years --- inducted into the U. S. Squash, College Squash Association,
Maryland State Squash and Springfield College (his alma mater) Halls of
Fame (in 2016, 2021, 2014 and 2016 respectively), he has also twice
been named United States Olympic Committee Coach of the Year, is a
three-time recipient of the New England Small College Athletic
Conference (NESCAC) Coach of the Year Award and earned Awards from the
Hartford Business Bureau, received a Trinity College Trustee of
Excellence Award and was named the Trinity College Athletic Department
Coach of the Year.
Much more significant in terms of its
long-lasting impact has been the manner in which the Trinity College
men’s team, under Assaiante’s guidance, has transformed college
squash’s competitive landscape. It was Assaiante who led the way, in
the wake of a now-famous meeting he had during the spring of 1996 with
Trinity College President Evan Dobelle, by dramatically expanding the
recruitment of college players, which previously had been largely
“local” in nature --- limited for the most part to New England prep
school players and those from the Philadelphia Main Line, the
Greenwich/Rye area and vaunted junior programs from clubs like Heights
Casino in Brooklyn or the Merion Cricket Club in Haverford --- to the
point where the top junior squash players from overseas now routinely
are major factors in every top-tier college program. In the semifinals
of the recent 2023 Potter Cup tournament, as one example, the nine
players in the lineup of eventual-champion Harvard University each came
from different countries spread out over five continents. All of the
coaches of colleges with elite squash programs recruit internationally
nowadays, following with varying degrees of success the trail that was
initially blazed by Coach Assaiante, who was the first to have the
vision to take what at the time was considered a revolutionary step in
the wake of the colleges’ decision to switch from hardball to softball
after the 1993-94 season. In addition to the Trinity College team
championships --- which include 16 consecutive NESCAC titles ---
Assaiante has coached 47 All-Americans and four Intercollegiate
Individual champions, namely Marcus Cowie in 1997 and 1998, Bernardo
Samper in 2002, Baset Chaudhry in 2008 and 2009 and Mohamed Sharaf at
the 2023 Championship earlier this month.
However, most far-reaching of all have been
the relationships and life-long friendships he has formed with his
legion of players over the years --- Sharaf, who, as noted, gave Coach
Assaiante the best possible going-away present by winning the
Intercollegiate Individuals championship two weeks ago, has called him
“like a second father to me,” echoing what scores of Assaiante’s other
players have said about him. Perhaps his strongest and most salient
quality during his nearly three decades in Hartford has been his
ability to take a bunch of excellent individual players from different
countries (including some countries that are not on friendly terms with
each other) in a very individual sport and mold them into a true team,
one in which every member is playing for his fellow teammates at least
as much as for himself and everyone is “all in” in their commitment to
the team’s success to such a degree that “All In”
was actually the title of a 55-minute documentary that Trinity senior
Marc DiBenedetto, who had traveled with the team on road trips and
assiduously chronicled its journey throughout the 2012-13 championship
season as part of an independent study class credit, presented to
Trinity’s men’s and women’s teams at the school’s Cinestudio that
spring (the film later attracted lots of viewers on Youtube).
In addition to his squash coaching
commitments at Trinity College, Assaiante also served two substantial
stints as U. S. Squash National Team Coach, in which capacity he led
the U. S. men’s team --- consisting of Julian Illingworth, Gilly Lane,
Todd Harrity and Chris Gordon --- to sixth place at the 2011 World
Team Championships in Paderborn, Germany, the highest-ever finish
for an American team in this biennial event. Then, in 2019, he
and his assistant coach (and former PSA No. 1) Thierry Lincou guided
the U. S. men’s and women’s teams to a combined five gold medals (out
of only seven total events) in Lima, Peru, in the quadrennial Pan
American Games. Amanda and Sabrina Sobhy and Olivia Clyne won the
women’s team event, Amanda Sobhy won the women’s individual crown and
the Sobhy sisters won the women’s doubles, while Todd Harrity, Chris
Hanson and Andrew Douglas won the men’s team title and Harrity and
Hanson won the men’s doubles. Assaiante himself won the U. S.
National 50-and-over softball title in 2003, nine years after he had
partnered Gordon Anderson to the U. S. National Doubles 40-and-over
championship in 1994.
Assaiante, who, prior to arriving at
Trinity College, had coached the men’s squash and tennis teams at Army
from 1976-85 and at Williams College from 1988-91, also coached the
Trinity men’s tennis team for the first 19 of his 29 years in Hartford
and served as the Director of Athletic Development at Trinity for seven
years, spearheading the College's effort to upgrade its athletic
facilities during that time. His fund-raising efforts produced two new
synthetic outdoor fields, a premier squash facility, a new boathouse
and a community ice skating center for the College. In addition, more
than $11 million was raised with recent projects that included new
baseball and softball diamonds. Trinity's remodeled tennis courts
were christened as the Paul D. Assaiante Tennis Center in the fall of
2010.
Coach Assaiante fully plans to remain at
Trinity College in a supportive role, working with the Athletics
Director on projects related to sport, while also providing the benefit
of his 41 total years’ worth of college squash coaching experience ---
nine at Army, three at Williams, 29 at Trinity --- to the next head
men’s squash coach as soon as one is appointed. Although Paul
Assaiante’s coaching career has now ended, his presence and the
handprint he has left on Trinity squash, college squash and squash as a
whole will be felt, acknowledged and praised for generations to come.
