Inducted January 10, 2014
Michelle Martini Tripi was a dual-sport student-athlete at Molloy College, playing both softball and women’s basketball. Within the softball record book, she ranks third all-time in career stolen bases (91), fifth in career stolen base percentage (.867) and stolen bases in a single season (33 in 2002), seventh in career hits (138), and eighth in career batting average (.334). During the 1999 season, she was named to the All-New York Collegiate Athletic Conference Second Team.
Martini Tripi’s name can also be found on the women’s basketball all-time lists as she ranks second in career free-throw percentage (.751), fourth in career steals (241), fifth in made threepointers (133), career assists (320) and steals per game (2.3), sixth in assists-per-game over her career (3.0), and seventh in career three-point completion percentage (.320).
Her accomplishments also extended into the classroom as Martini Tripi was awarded in 2002 the NYCAC’s Academic Player of the Year award, tabbed to the CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team, and named a CoSIDA Academic All-American. She also earned a spot on the Dean’s List in the Fall of 1998, Spring of 2001, Fall of 2001 and Spring of 2002, received the honor of the Delta Epsilon Pi’s Business Honor Society (Spring 2002), and was tabbed to the Athletic Director’s Academic Honor Roll (2001-02).
She served as basketball captain from 2000-02 and was named Most Valuable Player (2001-02). Martini Tripi garnered Athlete of the Week kudos in December 2000, January 2001 and March 2001. She was also given the S. Marie DeLourdes Smith, O.P. Sportsmanship Award (2001- 02), while being nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year honor in 2002. She represented Long Island on the softball team during the Empire State Games (1998, 2002-04).
Martini Tripi graduated from Molloy in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting. While at Molloy, she met her husband, Joshua Tripi, who was a member of the baseball team. Upon graduating, she accepted an accounting position at Kimco Realty Corporation. At the same time she was also offered the head junior varsity coaching position for Holy Trinity High School’s girls’ basketball team. Experiencing two sides of the spectrum for two years (the corporate world and the education world), Martini Tripi decided to make a career change. In 2004, she decided to return to Molloy for her master’s degree in Childhood Education.
She and Joshua were married in 2005. She earned a 4.0 grade point average for her graduate course work, which was completed in 2006. Martini Tripi then received her first full-time teaching job at St. Mary’s Elementary School in Manhasset, Long Island.
After having her first child, Mikayla, in 2010, Martini Tripi decided it was time to hang up her coaching shoes. She coached six years as the assistant softball coach at Molloy (2006-10) and nine years as the head junior varsity basketball coach at Holy Trinity High School. After having her second child, Cole, at the end of 2011, she was asked to dust off her coaching cleats. Martini Tripi is currently the head varsity softball coach at Holy Trinity. She is also in her seventh year teaching at St. Mary’s Elementary School in Manhasset.
The Tripis and their two children, Mikayla (3) and Cole (2) live in South Freeport.
