Dominic Manzi-Knych has caught a break in his young life and congratulations to him as he enters into the Division One college basketball world at UMASS Amherst as an assistant coach for head coach Matt McCall who will be entering his fifth season on the UMASS campus. 

UMASS is in the ultra competitive Atlantic 10 conference and Manzi-Knych is grateful and excited for such an opportunity at a very young age. 

 Dominic Manzi-Knych on his way to a career in coaching.

Manzi-Knych just graduated from UMASS in May with a bachelor of science degree in sport management. He graduated from Bartlett High School in 2017 and was part of the Indians 2017 Clark Tournament and District championship team. 

As an undergrad at UMASS Dominic worked his way up to the assistant position by being a tireless student manager during his freshman and sophomore years and then got promoted to senior manager his junior and senior years on the UMASS basketball team under the watchful eye of Coach McCall. 

Hard work always pays off and in this situation for Manzi-Kynch it was all worth it. “I love Coach McCall and UMASS basketball and when the job opened up recently, my first thought was I must be dreaming,” said Manzi-Knych. McCall must have seen what we all know in these parts, that Dominic is a tireless worker and his loyalty goes on forever, but his staple quality is his humility. 

McCall offered the title of video coordinator to Manzi-Knych last week and the dream has come true for the local kid. His mother Luanne Manzi and his father John Knych are glowing with the news of their son landing such a position right away in a national setting of college basketball.

The video position on the college and professional sports levels is the recapturing of what happened in practices and games using video editing software to complile breakdowns of specific plays or techniques. 

The Atlantic 10 conference has the likes of Dayton, St. Louis, URI, Fordham, St. Bonaventure, George Mason, and Richmond to name a few. Manzi-Knych said, “there are no nights off in the A10. All the schools in the A10 have great facilities and atmosphere to play in. It is a very competitive conference. The goal is to compete and get to the NCAA tournament every year.” 

The Minutemen ended their 2020-21 season in the A10 quarter finals where they were beat by St.Louis. However, it was the farthest they advanced since 2014. 

The outlook is bright at UMASS and McCall’s coaching resume started with Billy Donavan at Florida as an assistant and then a two year head coaching stint at Chattanooga before landing at UMASS in 2017. McCall has put the foundation in for the Minutemen to be successful this season and make a run at the NCAA tournament. There has been a lot of movement on their roster to make that expectation a reality. 

Manzi-Knych has a huge task in front of him at such an early age and relishes the fact that he is in a big time atmosphere in a program that is at the cusp of achieving the ultimate goals of an NCAA division one bonafide program where the lights are the brightest and the bands are the loudest.

It doesn’t get any better for Dominic Manzi-Knych from Webster.  The kid put his head down and worked his way up the ladder the old school way. He is a valuable cog in the UMASS basketball wheel and he has prepared himself to embrace the opportunity.

Good Luck to Manzi-Knych and UMASS. Webster has a young son at a tender age in the big show of college basketball by way of his humility, perseverance, and hard work. His day-to-day responsibilities are demanding and crucial to Head Coach Matt McCall and the entire UMASS basketball program. Dominic is chomping at the bit for this opportunity. The opportunity couldn’t have happened to a better kid. A great lesson lesson of preparation meeting opportunity