USOC Coaching Awards Announced

USOC Coaching Award Winners: Bill James (above in gray), Natalie Grainger, and Tariq Mohammed (L). All three are automatically nominated for USOC Coach of the Year.
USOC Coaching Award Winners: Bill James (above in gray), Natalie Grainger, and Tariq Mohammed (L). All three are automatically nominated for USOC Coach of the Year.

UScreen Shot 2014-11-12 at 2.03.07 PM.S. SQUASH recognized three coaches with the 2011 U.S. Olympic Committee Coach of the Year honors. In receiving this award, all three coaches are also nominated to be selected as the USOC Coach of the Year among all National Sports Governing Bodies. U.S. Junior Women’s Coach Natalie Grainger was named National Coach of the Year, Tariq Mohammed of Concord Academy was named the Developmental Coach of the Year while Bill James was recognized as the Volunteer Coach of the Year.

National Coach of the Year
Natalie Grainger created and implemented the most comprehensive regimen ever used for our U.S. Junior Women’s Team in preparation for the World Championships. She was instrumental in leading the team and mentoring the players to their record second place finish in Boston last summer. She served as the President of the Women’s professional tour for nearly a decade while an active player—and now serves on the Board of Directors of an urban squash and education program in New Haven to expand the reach of the game.

Tariq_Mohammed_PhotoDevelopmental Coach of the Year
Tariq Mohammed coached student athletes in the varsity and club squash programs at Concord Academy in Massachusetts while simultaneously working as the director of Kidsquash, a community squash program at Harvard University. Mohammed has over eight years of experience as a certified squash coach, including coaching the Girls and Boys Squash teams at Concord Academy, a squash instructor at the Commonwealth School, Phillips Academy Andover and serving as an Associate Coach at Tufts University. Tariq is also an accomplished squash player and a former No. 1 and Co-Captain of the Bowdoin College squash team.

Volunteer Coach of the Year
Bill James has been a volunteer at METROsquash, an urban enrichment program in Chicago, for the past five years. James has helped students achieve U.S. Squash rankings as high as No. 15 in the country. James also helped organize and operate two successful U.S. Opens, in 2009 and 2010. During the 2010 Open event, James also helped plan an education expo for 2,000 Chicago Public School students.