Page 10 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 1 Fall 2013

10
By Jana F. Brown
The summer of 2001 brought unrest and
violence to Zimbabwe. Under the rule of
President Robert Mugabe, the government
was in the midst of seizing more than
4,500 local farms without compensating
their white owners. More violence was
expected with the approach of the Feb-
ruary 2002 elections, and the United States
had threatened sanctions against Zimbab-
we in an attempt to cease the bloodshed
and uncertainty under Mugabe’s rule.
It was early September 2001 when Sean
Wilkinson ’04 embarked for America, leav-
ing his home and his family in Bulawayo,
the second-largest city in Zimbabwe. A
squash player who already had earned a
spot on Zimbabwe’s U-14 national team
roster, Wilkinson followed fellow Zimbab-
weans Linda McNair ’01, Gavin Johnstone-
Butcher ’02, and Katia Stipinovich ’03 to
St. Paul’s, with the promise of a stable
environment, a rigorous education, and
the opportunity to test his squash acumen
across the world. It was an emotional
good-bye with his family, including Sean’s
father, who was ill at the time.
Fast forward to May 5, 2013, the day
Wilkinson was offered the opportunity
to become the eighth head coach in the
history of Princeton University men’s
squash.
“In appointing Sean Wilkinson as the
new head coach of men’s squash, the
search advisory committee sought a
candidate who possessed the coaching
ability and personal qualities of former
coach Bob Callahan,” Princeton’s Direc-
tor of Athletics Gary Walters said in a
release. “We believe that Sean will prove
to be a worthy successor of Bob’s, will
be embraced by the Princeton squash
stakeholders, and will eventually put his
own stamp on the program.”
It was former longtime SPS boys squash
coach Roy McNamara who, on an annual
pilgrimage to Zimbabwe in 2000, recog-
nized Wilkinson’s squash talent and con-
vinced the family that St. Paul’s would be
the best place for Sean.
“It was a difficult time for him,” says
McNamara. “It was a long way from
home. His family was really tight-knit.
But squash was a great gateway for him
to come to America.”
Wilkinson’s father was a barrister at
Barclays bank, focused on lending to
farmers. With Mugabe’s charge to con-
fiscate white-owned farms without com-
pensation, the family’s livelihood was
uncertain. The Wilkinsons were a family
struggling to survive.
“I was a little young to realize the impact
in the long term,” says Wilkinson, now 27.
“But I knew something could happen to
anyone in my family at any time.”
It was his older brother, Ian, who initially
took up the sport when Sean was in grade
school. When the family moved across
the street from Suburbs Squash Club, “I
just couldn’t stop,” Wilkinson says, noting
that he abandoned cricket and field hockey
to pursue the racquet sport. “Squash took
over everything.”
McNair, Johnstone-Butcher, and Stip-
inovich already were students at SPS,
and Wilkinson applied to the School with
fellow Bulawayo native Natalie Thomas
’04. Though McNamara wants no credit
for Sean’s continued success, it turns
out that chance meeting with the
then-SPS squash coach has made all
the difference for Wilkinson, who has
followed his athletic talent from one
opportunity to the next.
With an unpredictable mail system
a barrier to his next step, Wilkinson
learned of his SPS acceptance only
when his mother called the School one
Saturday morning seeking the answer.
“Other than the ones I knew who had
gone to St. Paul’s, people stayed with
their families,” he recalls. “Nobody went
to boarding school in America. I knew it
was a great opportunity.”
The transition to St. Paul’s was diffi-
cult, Wilkinson admits, and he struggled
at first with the culture, his studies, and
homesickness. But he thrived on the
squash court, playing No. 1 on the SPS
ladder for two seasons and earning All-
ISL honors. Still, his St. Paul’s future was
in doubt. In the summer before his Sixth
Form year, Wilkinson returned to Zim-
babwe to discover a collapsed economy.
His father was gravely ill and his mother
had been a recent carjacking victim. His
parents sat him down to explain that,
though he had a generous financial aid
package from St. Paul’s, the family would
be unable to pay his other expenses,
including books and travel. Resigned by
circumstance, Wilkinson sent an e-mail
to his best friend Deacon Chapin ’05,
sharing the news.
“Within three hours, Deacon’s father,
David, whom I had met once or twice,
was on the phone, telling my parents
he’d take care of me,” recalls Wilkinson.
Squash has been a vehicle for newly minted
Princeton men’s coach Sean Wilkinson ’04
ATHLETICS