Episode 7: Pat Duquette | UMass-Lowell Men’s Basketball Head Coach
Episode 7 features Pat Duquette, UMASS-Lowell Men’s Basketball Head Coach and we are back this week with another episode.
I am your host, Richmond Weaver and glad you’re listening through whatever format that might be and thanks for being an investor by investing your time to listen.
This week it’s my pleasure to welcome in a friend from my early days of coaching and that’s Pat Duquette who is currently the head coach for the men’s basketball team at UMass-Lowell. Early on I’ve talked about one of the unique abilities of sports and that’s how it can connect people. No truer than with Pat and me. We met in 1993 when we both were struggling for any big coaching breaks and we met when were both interning for the New Jersey Nets. This was the same time that I was an assistant at Fairleigh Dickinson University and in all honesty, I was basically interning there as well… Visa was my checking account. How many of you know what I’m talking about? I eventually started doing some ticket sales for the Nets and that helped make ends meet to a certain degree but we were both just trying to make it. We really didn’t know how but we didn’t care… just give me a shot. That was our motto. And you know what that’s how we connected. I’m a southern boy and he’s born and raised in the Northeast and we connected and we’re still friends today. We were both basically on the same team as we rooted for each other to make it and we were connected because of one thing… that’s sports. It’s crazy how sports can bring people together like that but it does. Now we stayed in contact for several years after our days in NJ together through the coaching circuit but as in life there’s drift and contact can fade and it did with us but that connection was still there.
When I decided to start this crazy thing called Rich Take On Sports, one of the first people I reached out to was Pat. We hadn’t talked in 10 plus years and do you know one of the first things he said… “How can I help?” That’s just the type of person he is… putting others first and it’s easy to see why guys like playing for him and why parents trust him.
He’s now entering his 5th season at UMass-Lowell after spending 3 years as the associate head coach at Northeastern with Bill Coen and before that he spent 13 years at Boston College with Al Skinner climbing his way from administrative assistant to associate head coach during those 13 years. Here’s the interview with Pat Duquette.
Had a great childhood with 5 kids in his family. Parents were fully supportive of sports and all played multiple sports and it was the cycle of life. Had older siblings to not only teach you about sports but also to compete with. Older siblings provided support.
Played in the neighborhood with other kids playing in the street and the quiet street turned into a sports complex.
Played multiple sports through all high school and attended a small high school and the school needed kids to play multiple sports to field the different teams.
Attended Williams College, Division III to play basketball. Wasn’t sure what path to go while in college but watched cousin and brother climb the ranks in baseball but wanted to do it in basketball.
Great experience with New Jersey Nets but wanted more involvement in basketball operations and jumped to Centenary College. Since there wasn’t a minor league system for basketball he really only wanted to coach and didn’t want athletic administration. Lived with his brother in Port St. Lucie and waited tables while his brother was working for the Mets. Then got a call from Dave Paulsen who became the head coach at St. Lawrence and it was a great experience because he was given so much responsibility as an assistant.
After St. Lawrence, he moved to St. Michael’s a Division II school and was able to get his Master’s and was also a substitute teacher at the local school and he loved it.
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