During the second night of qualifying for the 2014 Delaware Investments U.S. Open, US Squash honored Scott Devoy with the 2013 USOC National Coach of the Year Award. Devoy, the national junior women’s coach, led the U.S. team to a second-place finish at the 2013 World Junior Women’s Championships in Wroclaw, Poland in July 2013. The U.S. came in second just once before, in 2011, but on its home courts in Boston. Furthermore, Devoy guide the American women through a nail-biting semifinal encounter with England in Wroclaw—the U.S. Won 2-1 and in one match Devoy helped coach Sabrina Sobhy back from an 0-2 deficit.
Devoy, thirty-seven, grew up in New Zealand—he’s the nephew of Susan Devoy (a former world No.1) and Mark Devoy (the men’s coach at Cornell)—and went to the Auckland University of Technology. He arrived at Merion Cricket Club in August 2003 and became its director of squash in 2005—the latest in a storied succession of great coaches at Merion that reaches back to the origins of junior squash in America. Devoy has coached Merion players to fourteen national titles, including Team USA member Todd Harrity who is presently ranked 83 in the world.
US Squash has awarded the USOC National Coach of the Year since 1998. Previous winners include Paul Assaiante, Demer Holleran, Jack Wyant and Natalie Grainger.