Husband's reward for making his wife number one

Danny Massaro was presented with Elite Coach of the Year (BY ENGLAND SQUASH) after helping wife Laura become world champion in Hong Kong in December 2015.

And 41-year-old Danny believes it’s getting the right balance between home and work life which has helped make their partnership such a success.

“I think it’s one of the main things we’ve got better at is keeping our roles as husband and wife and coach and player separate,” Danny said.

“We’re travelling all over the world together which is great but we have to know what we both want from each other.”

The couple are both originally from Preston but now live in Horton, in Ribble Valley. They met in 2003 at David Lloyd gym in Chorley and began to play squash together.

“We struck up a relationship and were married in 2007,” said Danny. “I hadn’t coached much before then but I loved getting involved with it. Laura’s gone up a level recently which is why she’s world number one.”

Laura, 32, attended Albany High School in Chorley, and became a professional squash player in 2002 leading her to become the only British woman in history to hold both The World Open and the coveted British Open titles.

Laura’s other coach 57-year-old David Pearson, who Danny classes as his mentor, also received the award and the three of them have now travelled to Malaysia for the World Championships earlier this week.

Still a keen squash player himself, Danny reached the final of the of the over 40s national championships in February. He is also the author of new book ‘The Winning Parent’ and has been a lecturer in sports coaching at The University of Central Lancashire for the past 20 years.

And Danny believes being able to put his theories into practice has been a key reason behind his success on and off the court.

He said: “It’s great to receive the award, but I’ll admit at first I felt like Laura had done all the work. Then I realised that the combination of playing, lecturing and coaching worked well and gave me some real credibility.

Playing allows me to have empathy with Laura when she’s playing and training and I think that’s been important for her success.”

And now Danny’s telling his story in his book, which is available on Amazon, talking about his journey as a coach and his advice to parents.