Sam Guastella, who starred nearby at Quinnipiac and played professionally overseas before beginning her coaching career with La Salle, joined the Yale women’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant coach in May of 2022. She was the first hire for Dalila Eshe as Yale’s new Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women’s Basketball.
In her first season at Yale, Guastella helped coach the Ivy League Co-Defensive Player of the Year (Nyla McGill) and a top 10 finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award as the best point guard in the country (Jenna Clark). The Bulldogs also had a five-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week honoree (Kiley Capstraw) and three CSC Academic All-District selections (Clark, Klara Astrom, Brenna McDonald and Haley Sabol). The season was highlighted by a 71-70 overtime win at Harvard on Jan. 7, 2023 -- the Bulldogs' first road win vs. the Crimson since 2012.
Guastella spent the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons as an assistant coach at Temple, helping the Owls to a pair of American Athletic Conference Tournament appearances. Prior to that, she got her start in coaching as a graduate assistant at La Salle in 2018-19 and was elevated to an assistant coach role for the 2019-20 season. She helped the Explorers more than double their overall and Atlantic 10 win totals in her second year.
Guastella has experience in player development, practice execution and scout preparation. At La Salle in 2019-20 she helped the Explorers to their first win over a Power 5 program (Penn State) since November 2015. She worked directly with guard/forward Kayla Spruill, helping her earn the Big 5 Most Improved Player Award after nearly doubling her points per game and tripling her rebounds per game.
Guastella’s playing career was marked by success, including a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, a pair of WNIT appearances and a pair of conference championships at Quinnipiac. She led the Bobcats to the best record in program history in 2014-15 (31-4). That included an undefeated conference mark of 20-0 and Quinnipiac's first MAAC Championship. She was a first team All-MAAC selection and finished her career as the Bobcats' all-time leader with 225 career three pointers. She also had the most career blocked shots (179) of anyone in QU’s Division I era (since 1998-99) and served as team captain.
After her college career ended Guastella began her pro career with BBC Etzella in Luxembourg. She averaged a team-best 19.8 points per game while adding 6.6 rebounds. Guastella led BBC Etzella to the semifinal round of the Luxembourg League playoffs in 2015-16. She then spent the 2016-17 season with T71 Dudelange in Luxembourg, leading the Total League in scoring (23.7 points per game).
Guastella spent February through April 2017 in Australia playing for Hume City in Melbourne. She then played for T71 Dudelange again in 2017-18, averaging 18.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game and helping the team advance all the way to the Total League Championship before falling to Amicale.
A 2015 graduate of Quinnipiac, Guastella has a bachelor's degree in health sciences and was a MAAC All-Academic selection. She earned a master of business administration degree in marketing from La Salle in 2020. She is a native of Red Bank, N.J.
