Streaky Friday: Trinity men's squash guns for 200th consecutive win tomorrow against Dartmouth

    At the helm of a team about to go for its 200th straight win tomorrow, Trinity men's squash coach Paul Assaiante remains relatively humble in light of what his team has accomplished over the past decade.
    "It's one of those things: You walk 100 miles, but all you think about is walking one step at a time, and then someone else says, 'Oh, did you know you walked 100 miles?'" Assaiante said. "No, we just kept walking steps. Each match was an individual pearl, and when I think back to matches, what I really think about most is the relationships with boys on the teams over all those years, which is still my paycheck; my relationship with these boys is absolutely why I do what I do."
    What was started over a decade ago in 1998 -- when Bill Clinton was president and the Internet was still building up momentum -- has culminated with some downright gaudy numbers for the Bantam squash program: 199 consecutive victories, a record in any intervarsity collegiate sport; 10 straight College Squash Association (CSA) Team Championships, also known as the Potter Trophy; 10 straight perfect seasons; and a decade as the undisputed king of men's college squash. But despite the milestone of No. 200 well within Trinity's grasp when it takes on the Dartmouth Big Green -- a squad the Bantams dominated 9-0 on Jan. 17 -- tomorrow during the first round of games in an eight-team bracket vying for this year's Potter Trophy, both coach and team downplay the statistics and records.
    "What's happened is [the chance for 200 straight wins] made an interesting story more interesting," said Assaiante, who has amassed a 257-10 record across 15 seasons at the helm of the Bantam program and guided Trinity to a 16-0 regular-season mark this year. "It's been great for the game of squash, and especially great for college squash. It's been good for our little college. It's been great for us and it gives us a sense of pride and yet we don't take it or ourselves too seriously.
    "I don't think they're focused on streaks," he continued. "I think they're just out there battling, and something will happen at the end of the day, but I don't think they're focused on it. Hopefully not, because it can't help them in any way."
    "The streak is not something the players think about," senior quad-captain Rushabh Vora added. "I didn't know the number before; five games ago I didn't know if it was 190 or 185 or 180, you know? We take every match as it comes; we really don't know the numbers and we don't care about the numbers."
    Whether concerned with streaks and records or not, Trinity almost found itself heading to this weekend's national championship bracket with a loss after the No. 2 Princeton Tigers nearly halted the Bantams' tally at 198 during a regular-season showdown between the nation's top two programs Saturday. With a gutsy marathon 3-2 win from sophomore Andres Vargas, the defending national champions escaped 5-4 to bring them to the doorstep of 200 consecutive victories.
     "We've been very lucky at times, and we won a match on Saturday where we really didn't play very well," Assaiante said. "There's luck there that could have gone the other way; we were within two points of losing that match."
    Although Trinity has remained untouchable by virtually all standards in the college squash world over the last 10 years, all the winning and titles, including three straight NESCAC crowns, has not made experiencing a victory any less stale.
    "Every match feels so fun and we're so enthused to go out and play it," Assaiante said. "It's a step at a time through a wonderful forest. Every step has been perfect and pure in its own right … and then you look down at the valley you just crossed and you say, 'Well, that was pretty cool,' but there's no time to think about that while you're taking each step."
    And while Assaiante undeniably has remained as an anchor for the program as the victories and national championships have continued to pile up, he cited teamwork and a sense of family that he strives to instill each season as the primary reason for Trinity's dominance over the last decade.
    "The team is truly a team; the boys gave up their own individual stuff and focused on the greater good and they truly believe in team," Assaiante said. "The national team finals will be played Sunday. The following weekend is the intercollegiate singles championships. I won't even be with the team during that week of practice because it's for them, it's individual. We only focus on team, 100 percent."
    Still, Vora was quick to credit Assaiante as both a coach and a fatherly figure who has been nothing less than integral in the top position the team currently occupies and has held for years.
    "Firstly, this is like a family; we call it the Trinity squash family," he said. "He's very open and helps us with anything we need. So that makes us not want to let him down, and obviously we want to win as well, but we don't want to let him down. He does a lot for us, and we want to give back."
    Not surprisingly, Trinity has attracted a wealth of top-tier squash talent from across the world, and Assaiante has managed to maintain cohesion and transform the individual players into one working, winning unit.
    "We have international kids from all over the world -- South America, Asia, America, Africa, and everyone was the king of their own backyard," Vora said. "[Junior Baset Chaudhry] is our No. 1; he was No. 1 in Pakistan. The Swedish kid is No. 1 in Sweden. The South African kid is No. 1 in South Africa. So they come here and they all have their egos and their No. 1s … so what Coach does very well is blending the egos and making sure that we understand we are playing for one team and No. 1 and No. 3 on our team are the same person, there's no difference."
    All signs available quickly point to a rematch Sunday between the Tigers -- who were undefeated before Saturday's loss -- and Trinity with the national title on the line. Given how close they came to seeing the streak snapped, the Bantams know they will have their work cut out for them in order to extend their postseason success.
    "I would say based on the season, it will likely be a Trinity-Princeton matchup in the finals on Sunday," Assaiante said. "It's going to be a fantastic match, and we're excited to give it another try. We feel like we dodged a bullet on Saturday, and we didn't give Princeton our very, very best and we owe it to them to give them our very best and we look forward to giving them that."
    "I'm going to be honest: 95 percent of college squash teams want us to lose on Sunday," Vora said. "Everyone wants to see this end and everyone wants to see the underdog win, but that kind of stuff doesn't really bother us. We are going out to win and after four years of doing your job, you leave and let the next batch of players come in and do their jobs for four years. That's how it was laid out to us, and hopefully it will continue on Sunday."
    As for the streak?
    "The other day some guys from the New York Times asked me what's going to happen when the streak ends," Assaiante said. "And I said the sky will go dark, and the sun will turn black, and rivers will run red and frogs will fall out of the sky. Nothing is going to happen; we'll just get up the next day and start over."