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Khan (Islamabad, Pakistan)
and Dhanasarnslip (Bangkok, Thailand), the
two #1 players for the Huskies will be competing in the CSA
Individual Championships this weekend. The event gets started
Friday morning at UPENN and features the top 64 players in
the Men's and Women's game. Check back to the site for
updates from Philly.
Not only will be representing Northeastern's mens and womens
teams this weekend at UPENN, they will be representing the
amazing change in the make up of College Squash. Squash has
always been labeled as an elitest sport with private club
membership needed to play--that is so far from the truth.
College squash has seen an enourmous growth over the last
ten years in numbers of players and numbers of teams, but
also in where those players are coming from.
Khan and Dhanasarnslip are just two of the many
international students competing this weekend. Five of the
top ten seeds in the women's draw are from overseas. On the
men's side only 5 of the top 20 seeds are American. The countries
these players hail from include Pakistan, India, Mexico, Canada,
Israel, England, Egypt, South Africa, El Salvador, Colombia,
and Zimbabwae to name a few--all countries with storied squash
histories
With the influx of more international players,
the college game has dramatically improved in the level of
play it offers. Ten years ago, no top squash player anywhere
would come to the US to play college squash if they had any
hopes of turning pro. Now College Squash is a launch pad for
the pro circuit. Just this past week 2 former College Squash
players, Yasser El Halaby (Princeton) and Jullian Illingworth
(Yale) qualified for the main draw of the Tournament of Champions
in NYC, one of the toughest tournaments on the PSA Tour.
College coaches have to recruit overseas to
stay competitive in the game, and they are all responding.
A quick glance down the Team Rankings and it is very hard
to find a team without atleast one international player ranked
in the top 25.
Along with the change of the international flavor
in College Squash, a new arena for recruitting has opened
up in recent years--the inner cities of America. College Squash
players are coming from Roxbury, Harlem, the Bronx, and West
Philadelphia. Graduates of the Urban Squash Programs are now
heading off to america's top colleges and playing on their
squash teams. Currently there are 4 Collegiate Squash Players
from Urban programs playing in the top 9:
-Lonnie Gibbs (StreetSquash), Wesleyan
-JP Morais and Jessica Thompson (SquashBusters) at Northeastern
-Shanita Williams and Jacinth Cooke (SquashBusters) at Smith
Shanita and Jacinth at Smith and Jessica Thompson
of Northeastern (all SquashBusters alumnae)
Guillermo Moronta of SquashBusters was the first Urban Program
graduate to play in college. He was a four year letter winner
and two time captain at Bates.
JP and Lonnie
before the Northeastern vs. Wesleyan match
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Guillermo Moronta of Bates via SquashBusters
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Next year, Bates is getting two more SquashBusters
graduates--Patrick Williams and Judy Braga, who are two of
the top players at SquashBusters. the There are 7 more SquashBusters
seniors who hear about their college search process in the
next month and all signs point to even more urban squashers
on college teams next fall. As Urban Squash programs continue
to grow around the country, College Coaches will have even
more recruits to look at to improve their teams.
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