Heart, Mind, Body and Soul?

On September 4 last year I wrote a note about our Summer of Fun at the SL Green StreetSquash Center. You know, the place in Harlem that Hilary Clinton opened about a year ago. A bunch of you stepped out of your comfort zone, made the trip uptown, and competed against unknown opponents under quite different conditions; i.e. younger opponents who could run forever on very hot brand new ASB squash courts. Everyone had loads of fun doing this. If you missed the opportunity to see the place (it is quite impressive) you will get more chances in the future, don’t worry.

Can A Tiger Really Change His Stripes?

A little While ago I joked that if squash were to ever make the Olympics it would take 1. a fight on court and 2. someone seriously imploding off-court, basically in order to spur media interest. I wrote this in jest obviously. Well, nevertheless, I got my first wish a few weeks ago (if you don't know what I am talking about, don't even worry about it). And now with Tiger finally appearing from the woods to play in the Masters next month, I wonder if one of our squash celebrities can fill the void he leaves behind..?

Top Gun

Last weekend the country's finest college squash players gathered in Hartford to see who is the top gun for the 2010 season. Harvard took the honors, with the best male and female players, Colin West and Laura Gemmell respectively.

And a Harvard junior who you may know, Jason Michas, won the mens' B section trophy. Last year he played in the MSRA 5.5 league in New York under the tutelage of Richard Chin. It is nice to see Harvard take all these awards after another dominating season by the Trinity Mens' team. In fact, this is the first time in over a decade that the mens' title has not gone to either Trinity or Princeton. This can only be good for the game. And for American squash.

Character Test

With the sportsmanship debate raging over the incidents at the College Squash finals a week ago, it is nice to see good character prevail. The Trinity number one has withdrawn from competing in the singles champs this weekend, even though he is the top seed and clear favorite to win the whole thing for the 4th time running. This means a college other than Princeton or Trinity may claim their first mens’ singles crown in over a decade.

The Trinity number one, Baset Chaudhry, is the defending national singles champion, a title he has won for the last 3 years. In fact, for the last 4 years he has been the US college number one squash player. Before him Princeton players had ruled. For the decade up until Chaudhry took over in 2007 Princeton players had taken the number one spot (aside from Bernardo Samper’s one victory). Chaudhry’s decision to step down has left the door wide open this year. Princeton’s top player and Trinity’s number two are both contenders for the title, but Harvard have a very strong number one, and, I suspect, they will break the Trinity/Princeton domination of the mens’ singles title.