One of the top young coaches in the country, Sahar Nusseibeh recently completed her second season season as an assistant coach at Manhattan, while also doubling as the Jaspers’ recruiting coordinator and defensive coordinator.
In 2016, Nusseibeh was named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s (WBCA) inaugural “Thirty Under 30” list, which recognizes the top 30 up-and-coming coaches 30-years old or younger at all levels of the game. A graduate of the NCAA’s Women Coaches Academy, she has also participated in the WBCA’s Center for Coaching Excellence.
In May 2017, Nusseibeh was among just 30 assistant college basketball coaches to take part in the U.S. Marine Corps Coaches Leadership Workshop in Quantico, VA. The three-day, invitation-only program is designed to teach small-unit leadership. She has attended numerous other professional development events, including the 2017 BDS Agency Head Coaching Training Center, the “A Step Up” Assistant Coaching Symposium in Charlotte, NC, and the Assistant Coaches Immersion Program in Denver, CO.
During her time with the Jaspers, Nusseibeh has worked closely with the team’s post players, including Kayla Grimme, who graduated from Manhattan as the program’s all-time leader in blocks, with 229 for her career. One of just two Manhattan women to hit the 1,300-point and 900-rebound thresholds in their careers, Grimme ranks third on the all-time rebounding list with 956, and sixth on the all-time scoring list with 1,408 points. She finished the 2017-18 season ranked eighth in the MAAC in scoring (14.8) per game and third in rebounding (8.5) per game, including leading the conference in offensive rebounds (3.5 per game).
Nusseibeh came to Riverdale after three seasons as an assistant coach at Bowling Green. During her first season with the Falcons in 2014-15, Bowling Green won the Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular season title with a 17-1 league mark. The Falcons won 30 games that season, the second-most in school and conference history, and reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s NIT.
Prior to her time at Bowling Green, Nusseibeh spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Holy Cross from 2011-13, serving as the Crusaders’ post coach and video coordinator. Holy Cross won 37 games over that period and made consecutive appearances in the Patriot League Championship Game. In 2011-12, the Crusaders went 19-15 and reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI).
Nusseibeh completed internships with both the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream (2007) and Washington Mystics (2009), and she worked with USA Basketball helping to prepare the under-19 and World University Games teams for competitions in Thailand and Serbia, before beginning her collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at Cincinnati. While with the Bearcats, Nusseibeh was the video coordinator and academic liaison, while also assisting in coaching the post players.
As a player, she was a four-year letterwinner at American, earning a place on the Patriot League All-Rookie Team in 2005-06. Nusseibeh played in 116 games during her career, including 39 starts, as the Eagles won a pair of Patriot League regular season titles (2007 and 2008). American made WNIT appearances in 2008 and 2009, the first two postseason berths in program history.
A native of Uniontown, OH, Nusseibeh graduated cum laude from American with a degree in international relations/international business in 2009. She earned a master’s degree in business administration from Cincinnati in 2011.
