Laurent Elriani was honored tonight with the United States Olympic Committee National Coach of the Year Award. Dent Wilkens, the senior vice president of operations at US Squash, presented Elriani with the award on the ASB GlassCourt at the 2017 United States Open.
Elriani, a top player from France, reached world No.58 before turning to coaching. In June 2004 Elriani married former world No.3 Linda Charman, and two years later they came to the U.S. They first coached at the Field Club in Greenwich, CT for a year, before arriving at the Heights Casino in Brooklyn in 2007.
Elriani is coaching an amazing quartet: the reigning U19 and U17 national boy’s champions and the current number one ranked U19 and U17 boys. He will be a lead coach next January on the US Squash’s annual trip to the British Junior Open.
US Squash has given out the USOC National Coach of the Year Award since 1998 when Paul Assaiante received the award. Other winners include Demer Holleran, Mark Allen, Adam Hamill, Natalie Grainger and last year’s winner Geoff Mitchell.