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Assaiante grounded on eve of Melbourne
by Rob Dinerman Oct 10, 2001 © 2001 Squashtalk
[last update was 23-oct-01 ]

2001 SquashTalk coverage will feature regular US Team updates from squash journalist Rob Dinerman.

COACH SIDELINED, SINGLES CANCELLED, US TEAM PREPARES FOR WORLD CHMPIONSHIPS IN MELBOURNE By Rob Dinerman Oct 10 2001 revised 11-oct-01

In what has recently become an increasingly unsettled world, squash at the highest echelon has also been thrown into disarray over the past month, and the fall-out has had profound consequences for some of the most significant individual and team competitions on the entire global schedule.

The U. S. Open Championships, which had been scheduled for Boston's Symphony Hall during the week of the terrorist attacks in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania, had to be postponed and was just this week rescheduled for the opening weekend in January.

The Pan American Federation Team Championships scheduled in El Salvador in early October, in which the U. S. had both men's and women's team entries(the former consisting of the bottom four finishers in the eight-man Team Trials held in Westchester, NY in early August), were completely cancelled, as were the World Singles Championships, due to take place in Melbourne, Australia in mid-October, when promised prize money was withdrawn at so late an hour that some of the contestants had already traveled all the way to the host site before getting the unhappy news!

The U.S. team was further jolted early this past week by the news that their popular and respected head coach, Paul Assaiante, who had bravely vowed to make the formidable trip in spite of having to undergo disc surgery on September 27th, was given the news by his neurosurgeon, Dr. Onyike, that a trip of this dimension so soon after an operation of this type would simply not be possible.

The resilient Assaiante, whose lesson and coaching schedules have been legendary over many years of playing and coaching, has been recovering quickly from his back operation (just as he did in '94 after arthroscopic knee surgery became necessary), but the three available post-op weeks are not nearly enough in the wake of a procedure whose recuperative time frame is at least a few months. In the face of this series of scheduling and medical reversals, the team has remained remarkably optimistic and resourceful.

Team Manager Richard Millman, who assisted Assaiante in the running of the team trials, which were held at Millman's club in Mamaroneck, is already in Australia competing in the Masters 40-and-over tourney. Though Assaiante obviously will not be on site with his charges, he has already been able to exert a substantial positive influence in the several team practices that have been scheduled in the Westchester and Greenwich, CT clubs over the past several weeks, particularly on the progress of the two youngest team members, Tim Wyant and Preston Quick, both members of the vaunted Class of 2000 and both of whom left on October 9th for Australia in order to play in the WSF World Challenge: singles competition, a kind of second-echelon version of the World Individuals for players whose PSA rankings are too low for them to be accepted in the Individuals.

The Challenger event is going forward and it should provide a perfect opportunity for this pair to get some matches under their belts, burn off any youthful nervous energy and acclimatize to the high-intensity environment they are entering before the Team competition begins on October 21st. By contrast, for the other two team members, Damian Walker and Richard Chin, both longtime veterans of the world squash scene, the primary objective entering the team tournament is energy conservation, especially in view of the fact that they will be manning the No. 1 and 2 positions respectively in the three-man team line-up.

They will each be traveling on the 17th and will be concentrating solely on the Team event, when the U.S. players will be trying to win the 17-24 pool to which they were consigned after placing seventeenth the last time this event was held in 1999. Team morale was at an all-time high during the final team practice at the Field Club of Greenwich on October 7th, which was also attended by Dick Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers, the primary corporate sponsor of the American squash team, who gave the players a gracious and enthusiastic send-off. Squashtalk will be providing daily updates on the progress of the U.S. team throughout the competition in Melbourne.