at the Smith-Chapman in Montreal
All,
The pandemic has put a major kibosh on the stewards of our game making it difficult to pass along stories of our great game to the budding generation of players. We got involved in doubles squash because we had role models who served as mentors - important figures who showed us how to play the game with passion.
Telling our stories to aspiring players would provide the needed oomph that our generation of players had. It’s this link that needs to be re-established for the game to grow and thrive.
I recently received such a story from my friend who was one of many doubles partners that I had the pleasure to team up with - Buffalo’s Mike McGorry. I made the journey east to play with Mike a number of times to play in a few US and Canadian tourneys. I remember at one time, he also traveled clear across the country to SF to play with me.
Mike’s memory of the match is better than mine recounting to me that we were playing against the formidable team of Beau Buford and Alex Dean in the finals. The match came down to the 5th game, the score was 14-13, barely in our favor.
On the ensuing rally, Mike sprinted to the front wall responding to a short ball, dove for the ball, and on his way down hits a lob while landing on his stomach. The arcing ball went over the heads of the converging opponents and landed for an untouched outright winner in the back left corner of the court.
Beau and Alex were STUNNED. I was stunned. The gallery was stunned, hushed, and then let out a roar! What a way to pull out a win, Mike!
John
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John,
I couldn’t agree more. I think one of the major problems is the current version of squash - softball. In the old days with hardball, kids who were graduates from college and who are working full-time jobs on Wall Street or in the business world, could play squash once or twice a week and still compete on weekends in tournaments around the country. With the fitness requirement for softball, the same kids stop playing competitively once their college days ended
Another problem is that playing softball is a grind.
Players who grew up only playing softball were never exposed to the hardball tourney fun of a Saturday night black-tie Squash dinner dance with all of the drinking, camaraderie, and frivolity associated there with. I can remember back in the old days when I would go to the Yale open where we would play open singles hardball, age group singles, and doubles with all of the kids from Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the like. On Saturday night, we would end up in the kit with KIPPUTH trophy room for a turkey feast. We would take what was left in the keg of beer down to the courts and play left-handed singles matches against each other and the winner would claim the loser's shirt. When the keg was finished, we would all head out to the bars and continue to have a blast. These kids couldn’t wait to go and play in a tournament ladened with fun. Softball changed everything.
In addition, the rules with underage drinking on campus also changed everything. Dave Talbott, the coach at Yale, wasn’t allowed to have a keg of beer at the Saturday night party. As a result, the kids didn't hang with the older players and they couldn’t wait to go rambling off to an off-campus party. They never had the opportunity to see just how much fun a doubles squash tournament is.
I’m not sure how we can make this game grow and thrive with the way softball is played and organized today. One strong quality of hardball tourneys was the feature of generational inclusion. Not so much with softball. You go to a softball tournament and people are drinking fruit juice all weekend. You go to a doubles tournament and it’s a beer fest.
Nowadays, if I were 25 year-older, I wouldn’t be interested in playing softball because it’s a grind and it’s not a lot of fun.
Just my thoughts. Hope all is well.
Mike
******
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