Entering his 15th year at Trinity, Head Coach
Paul Assaiante and the men's squash team are
coming off an 11th consecutive perfect season. With a final record
of 19-0, the 2008-09 Bantams brought home an unprecedented 11th
straight Potter Trophy with a dramatic comeback 5-4 win against
Princeton on their home turf in the College Squash Association
(CSA) Team Championships to keep the streak alive. Trinity
also captured its 12th straight national dual match championship
title and its third consecutive New England Small College Athletic
Conference (NESCAC) Championship crown.
Possessing a remarkable career record of 260-10, Assaiante has
guided the men's squash squad to the apex of the sport. Besides
coaching squash, Assaiante has served as the director of athletic
development at Trinity for six years, spearheading the
College's effort to upgrade its athletic facilities. In a short
time, Assaiante has played a pivotal role in the fund-raising
efforts, which have already produced two new synthetic outdoor
fields and the nation's premier squash facility for the College. In
all, more than $7 million has been raised with ongoing projects
that include a new boathouse, baseball and softball diamonds, and a
community ice skating center.
Assaiante has also coached the Trinity men's tennis squad for 13 of
the last 15 seasons, notching a 141-58 record (.709) with seven
NCAA appearances including four in the last six seasons. From
1999-2003, Assaiante coached both the United States Squash Team,
which competed in the Pan American Games, and the USA Men's Team,
which played in the World Championships. Twice named the United
States Olympic Committee Coach of the Year, Assaiante was given the
United States Squash Racquets Association (USSRA) President's Award
in 2003-04 for his lifelong contribution to the sport. He was named
one of Connecticut's top sports coaches of the 20th century by
The Hartford Courant and recently earned an award from the
Hartford Business Bureau for his outstanding contribution to sports
in the city.
Assaiante is a 1974 graduate of Springfield College and holds a
master's degree from Long Island University. His coaching
experience includes stints at the United States Military Academy
and Williams College. 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.
At Springfield College, Assaiante was tabbed an All-American
gymnast in 1974, and was also named to the Pan-American Gymnastics
Team that year. Assaiante's professional athletic career was
nothing short of spectacular. He won the World Harball Doubles
Championship in 1988. He was one-half of the U.S. national doubles
championship duo in 1994 and captured the USSRA 50-and-over men's
squash title in 2004. Assaiante also recently authored a book on
tennis, Championship Tennis by the Experts.
<b>Reggie Schonborn</b>, a 2004 graduate of Trinity,
enters his first season as an assistant coach for the Bantam
men's tennis and squash teams. Schonborn coached the Trinity
women's squash and tennis teams the last two seasons.
