Named Navy’s head coach in July of 2018, Tyler Osborne is his seventh year leading the Mids’ squash program.
Osborne’s squad is coming off a season that saw it finish 15-15 and place 22nd in the final rankings. The Mids closed out 2023-24 by playing in the Summers Cup where the Mids opened with back-to-back wins over Deison (7-2) and St. Lawrence (6-3) before succumbing to Hobart in the championship match in a hard-fought 5-4 battle. Junior Matt Wang earned First-Team All-MASC honors for a second-consecutive year, while team captain Henry Sparkman garnered second-team recognition. Meanwhile, Wang, Matthew Kang, Alexander Orr and Lucas Spiro were all named to the Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference All-Academic Team.
In his first season, Osborne led the Mids to a 13-7 record and featured 5-4 wins over Virginia, Western Ontario, Middlebury, Williams and Franklin & Marshall.
The Midshipmen, who won 11 straight matches to open the 2018-19 season and whose only setback was to then sixth-ranked Dartmouth, were ranked as high as eighth in the College Squash Association rankings.
Jack Lentz paved the way for the Mids in Osborne’s inaugural season producing a team-best 16-6 record, playing 19 of his 22 matches at the No. 1 spot on the ladder. Meanwhile, team captain Senen Ubina closed out his career eighth on the Mids’ all-time wins leader board with a 77-33 career record. Ubina is just one of 11 players in program history to reach 70 career wins. Remarkably, Ubina also graduated having won three Intercollegiate Squash Doubles Championships - all three with different partners - including 2018 when he teamed up with Michael Kacergis, the 2019-20 team captain.
2019-20 saw Navy join a conference for the first time in school history. Along with Navy, the Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference includes Dickinson, Drexel, Franklin & Marshall, George Washington, MIT and Virginia. The MASC is the first squash-specific athletic conference in the U.S. While it was formed in 2018-19 (minus Drexel and Navy), the College Squash Association Board of Directors did not sanction the MASC until 2019-20.
The Mids closed out the 2019-20 campaign with a 9-15 record, including a 1-5 mark in MASC action. Navy put together a 1-2 record at the CSA Team Championship to place 20th.
Junior Jack Lentz turned in a team-best 15-8 mark playing the No. 1 position on the ladder, while seniors Owen Davis (12-10) and Michael Kacergis (13-9) rounded out the top three. Lentz and Kacergis captured their first Intercollegiate Squash Doubles Championship as a team and the program’s fifth-consecutive title by defeating Sanjay Jeeva and Shamseldeen Abbas from Franklin & Marshall in a five-game thriller.
The 2020-21 campaign was all but wiped out due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Navy was able to play two matches, however, against one of the nation’s top teams in Virginia. The year ended on a high note for the Mids, as senior team captain Jack Lentz was presented the prestigious Skillman Award by the College Squash Association. The Skillman Award, voted on by CSA coaches and established in 1983, is the top honor bestowed each year to a senior men’s squash student-athlete who has displayed exemplary sportsmanship and skill throughout his career. Players are evaluated based on their on-court poise and demeanor, skill level and ability in the game of squash, team play, contributions to intercollegiate squash, leadership and cooperation with players, coaches and tournament officials. Lentz joins Casey Garwood ‘93 as the only two Navy players to win the award.
Navy opened the 2021-22 season by winning nine of its first 10 matches en route to a 15-12 record. The Mids competed in the Summers Division of the College Squash Association Team Championship where they upset three-consecutive opponents - #18 Brown, #20 Amherst and #22 Tufts - by 5-4 scores to win the division and finish 17th in the national rankings.
Navy opened the 2022-23 campaign winners of 13 of its first 14 matches, however, an unforeseen medical situation forced the Mids to play the remaining 21 matches on their schedule a man down. Despite the odds stacked against them, the team never let up and closed out the year by winning two (Denison, Wesleyan) of its three matches at the College Squash Association Team Championship where it would finish the season ranked 28th. Sophomore Matt Wang earned First-Team All-MASC honors, while team captain Millen Randell earned second-team recognition.
In July of 2023, Osborne served on the coaching staff for Team Canada at the 2023 WSF World Junior Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Played in Melbourne Sports Centres (MSC), the WSF World Junior Squash Championships is a pinnacle event that gathers the finest young talents from across the globe. The 2023 event featured 245 entries across the men’s individual championship, the women’s individual championship and the women’s team championship.
A 2015 graduate of Princeton, Osborne spent three seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater before arriving in Annapolis. He was a three-time All-American and All-Ivy player who amassed a 54-5 record (58-12 including individual championship ) over four seasons. Additionally, he guided the Tigers to back-to-back Ivy League titles in 2012 and ‘13. He came to Princeton as the top-ranked U-19 player in Canada and successfully parlayed that into Second-Team All-America honors his freshman year (2011-12) when he turned in a 14-2 record. He also captured one of the biggest victories in Princeton history by scoring a 3-0 victory over Miled Zarazua which helped the Tigers end Trinity’s streak of 13 consecutive National Championships.
He garnered First-Team All-America recognition as a sophomore (2012-13) playing primarily the No. 3 position and posting a 15-0 record. He put together an undefeated regular season and dropped just two of his 47 individual games. He reached the College Squash Association Individual Quarterfinals where he fell 3-1 to eventual National Champion Amr Khalifa of St. Lawrence and closed out the season ranked eighth nationally.
Despite an injury-plagued season, Osborne claimed Second-Team All-America honors and produced an 10-2 mark as a junior (2013-14). He completed his collegiate career in 2015 by posting a 15-1 mark in 2014-15, playing the No. 2 spot on the ladder for the Tigers.
Upon graduation, he joined the coaching staff of both the men’s and women’s programs at his alma mater where he helped five Princeton players (Olivia Fiechter, Youssef Ibrahim, Kira Keating, Adhitya Raghavan, and Maria Elena Ubina) earn All-America honors.
