July 13, 2022
December 9, 2018
Sasha Cooke Weighs in on the State of College Squash
In my view we've got entire teams made up of foreign recruits essentially on sports scholarships, many well past the age of ordinary college students, many of whom took as much money as they could get for their extensive pro forays.
It's so far from the ideals of Ivy or NESCAC sports that it's unrecognizable.
When there are abuses in NCAA football the NCAA is there to police them. When people skirt the very limits of the rules, all the other teams have the same opportunities.
But we have a situation where a team's success depends on the willingness of the school's administration to go outside their core mission and to pervert the souls of their institutions.
Schools that aren't willing to do this can't compete.
As I see it, the CSA allowed a few obvious abuses 25 years ago and more, and these have metastasized so that more schools are being drawn into an unhealthy arms race. Falsus in unum...
The excuse in football was always that it brought in alumni dollars. Bowen's book exploded that little myth, so no one can possibly believe it to hold true in squash.
I have zero faith that anyone among the CSA coaches or the non-coaching members of the board can fix this because they're still not willing to say that much of what Trinity has done has been destructive of the principles under which NESCAC sports are meant to be played.
If you try to tiptoe around Trinity and indeed celebrate their accomplishments, you simply can't address the big issues.
Going after nickle-and-dime stuff, like a coach possibly contacting a recruit before the rules allow it (and I'm sure the current coach in question has some defense), or disciplining a player for committing an apparel violation, is like trying to cure AIDS with aspirin.
Again, at least in football you have thousands at the games and it's a hundred year old tradition to have homecoming games for all alumni. It's even a hundred year old tradition to have recruiting excesses.
That doesn't make them right, but it makes them understandable. Squash was the Girls' Egg and Spoon, and now we've got Jim Brown out there with his thumb on the egg.
It's so far from the ideals of Ivy or NESCAC sports that it's unrecognizable.
When there are abuses in NCAA football the NCAA is there to police them. When people skirt the very limits of the rules, all the other teams have the same opportunities.
But we have a situation where a team's success depends on the willingness of the school's administration to go outside their core mission and to pervert the souls of their institutions.
Schools that aren't willing to do this can't compete.
As I see it, the CSA allowed a few obvious abuses 25 years ago and more, and these have metastasized so that more schools are being drawn into an unhealthy arms race. Falsus in unum...
The excuse in football was always that it brought in alumni dollars. Bowen's book exploded that little myth, so no one can possibly believe it to hold true in squash.
I have zero faith that anyone among the CSA coaches or the non-coaching members of the board can fix this because they're still not willing to say that much of what Trinity has done has been destructive of the principles under which NESCAC sports are meant to be played.
If you try to tiptoe around Trinity and indeed celebrate their accomplishments, you simply can't address the big issues.
Going after nickle-and-dime stuff, like a coach possibly contacting a recruit before the rules allow it (and I'm sure the current coach in question has some defense), or disciplining a player for committing an apparel violation, is like trying to cure AIDS with aspirin.
Again, at least in football you have thousands at the games and it's a hundred year old tradition to have homecoming games for all alumni. It's even a hundred year old tradition to have recruiting excesses.
That doesn't make them right, but it makes them understandable. Squash was the Girls' Egg and Spoon, and now we've got Jim Brown out there with his thumb on the egg.
June 22, 2018
“Where Are The Public Doubles Courts?” by Guy Cipriano
I read the listing of SDA pro doubles tournaments on DSR today.
Then there was a notation that said “ Where Are The Public Courts?”
The only public doubles courts of which I’m aware in the USA are at
Meadow Mill, MD
Chelsea Piers, CT
The Marblehead YMCA north of Boston
Charleston SC-
Commodore SC – MN
The Chicago Urban Squash facility
Boars Head Sports Club in Charlottesville VA
Greate Bay RC, Somers Point NJ
I could be missing one or two, but there aren’t many other public doubles courts, and possibly there are zero.
And these clubs are not geared up to host a big pro doubles tournament.
They don’t have the facilities and they don’t have the money to underwrite the costs.
Then there was a notation that said “ Where Are The Public Courts?”
The only public doubles courts of which I’m aware in the USA are at
Meadow Mill, MD
Chelsea Piers, CT
The Marblehead YMCA north of Boston
Charleston SC-
Commodore SC – MN
The Chicago Urban Squash facility
Boars Head Sports Club in Charlottesville VA
Greate Bay RC, Somers Point NJ
I could be missing one or two, but there aren’t many other public doubles courts, and possibly there are zero.
And these clubs are not geared up to host a big pro doubles tournament.
They don’t have the facilities and they don’t have the money to underwrite the costs.
November 1, 2017
Final Tribute to the Uptown Racquet Club, by Rob Dinerman
The starkness of the rubble graphically conveys what has happened to the once-magnificent (14 courts!) Uptown Racquet Club and, by extension, to the whole phenomenon of commercial squash in New York. For decades, Uptown, with its stable of exceptional pros (Stu Goldstein and Nancy Gengler prominently among them), was the face of squash's expansion to the many, even the masses. As social experiments go, it should always be remembered as an ambitious and grand one --- even though ultimately, it failed.
August 30, 2017
Any Tennis Refs Out There?
by Ted Gross
Shouldn't Maria Sharapova have been penalized for a time violation before the start of the third set in her 1st round US Open match?
She apparently exceeded the 5-minute time allotment.
Even in junior tennis, players typically are penalized one game for similar violations.
Shouldn't Maria Sharapova have been penalized for a time violation before the start of the third set in her 1st round US Open match?
She apparently exceeded the 5-minute time allotment.
Even in junior tennis, players typically are penalized one game for similar violations.
March 9, 2017
Competitive Club Squash in the US is Confirmed Dead
by Ted Gross
Another US 'Nationals' is underway. If you go out on a limb and call it that.
The Men's 35's with FIVE players participating.
The Women's 35's with ZERO players.
The Women's 40's with ZERO players.
Presenting a national championship with barely any players is only detrimental to the sport, and US Squash should retire the event.
Clearly, few, if any college players are interested in competing after they graduate.
The game is not enjoyable enough.
The ball is too slow.
The scoring system is too dull.
Traveling and committing a weekend to it is a positively dreary prospect.
You can't blame the non-players. They got it right.
Another US 'Nationals' is underway. If you go out on a limb and call it that.
The Men's 35's with FIVE players participating.
The Women's 35's with ZERO players.
The Women's 40's with ZERO players.
Presenting a national championship with barely any players is only detrimental to the sport, and US Squash should retire the event.
Clearly, few, if any college players are interested in competing after they graduate.
The game is not enjoyable enough.
The ball is too slow.
The scoring system is too dull.
Traveling and committing a weekend to it is a positively dreary prospect.
You can't blame the non-players. They got it right.
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