Trinity's Assaiante To Receive Prestigious Gold Key Award From Connecticut Sportswriters by David Kingsley January 6, 2016 - Hartford, Conn.
- Trinity College Head Men's Squash Coach Paul Assaiante, one of the
premier coaches in the history of intercollegiate athletics, will be
honored by the Connecticut Sportswriters Alliance this spring as one of
five Gold Key recipients for his lasting impact on sports in the state
of Connecticut. Assaiante will recognized, along with former
boxing champion Marlon Starling, former Hartford Whalers owner Howard
Baldwin, U.S. Hockey gold medalist Bob McVey, and longtime high school
swimming coach Terry Lowe at the Annual Gold Key Dinner on April 24 at
the Aqua Turf.
In his 21st year at Trinity, Assaiante
brought the men's squash team back to the College Squash Association
(CSA) National Championship Finals for the 19th year in a row in
2014-15, and the Bantams came through with their 15th national title
with a 7-2 win against St. Lawrence in the finals. This past winter,
the Bantams also won their ninth straight New England Small College
Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship title and had a 20-1 final
dual-match record. Trinity is 3-0 in 2015-16 with a match at
Drexel on January 5 at 4 p.m.
In 2012-13, Trinity won all
19 of its matches and downed Harvard, 6-3, at Yale in the CSA Finals to
give the Bantams their 14th national crown in 15 years. Assaiante
coached Trinity to the national title without a single First-Team All
American selection on the roster, and was rewarded as the 2013 NESCAC
Coach of the Year. Assaiante guided Trinity to 13 consecutive CSA
National titles from 1999 to 2011 and 252 wins in a row before a 5-4
loss at Yale in January of 2012 closed the book on the longest winning
streak in the history of intercollegiate varsity sports. Assaiante was
previously the NESCAC Coach of the Year in both 2008 and 2009. He
is 378-13 all-time as the Bantam head coach.
The team's
unprecedented winning streak, which began in 1998, captivated Trinity
and beyond and was followed by major media outlets across the globe and
the nation, including Sports Illustrated, ESPN, the New York Times, and
the Hartford Courant. The history of the team will forever remain a
legendary piece of history at Trinity College, where squash has been
enthusiastically embraced.
>From 1999-2003 and again
from 2010 to present, Assaiante coached both the United States Squash
Team, which has competed in the Pan American Games, and the USA Men's
Team, which finished a best-ever sixth in the World Championships in
Germany in 2011. Twice named the United States Olympic Committee Coach
of the Year, Assaiante was named one of Connecticut's top sports
coaches of the 20th century by The Hartford Courant. Assaiante
has also coached the Trinity men's tennis squad for 19 of the last 21
seasons, notching a 188-97 career record with the Bantams. His
tennis teams have consistently been ranked both regionally and
nationally, most recently in 2011-12 when the Bantams ended the year at
No. 5 in the ITA Division III Northeast Regional Poll and No. 18 in the
ITA Division III National Poll. Assaiante earned NESCAC and
Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regional Coach of
the Year in 2008.
His coaching experience includes stints at
the United States Military Academy Club Team for several seasons and at
Williams College in 1988-89, where he was 8-4 to give him a 386-17
overall career varsity record. He was also a squash professional at the
world-famous Princeton Club of New York and director of racquet sports
at the Baltimore Country Club, the Apawamis Club in Rye, N.Y., and the
Bellevue Athletic Club in Seattle, Wash.
