24 Hour Squashathon...... done

     When the junior committee first talked about doing a 24 hour squashathon, I thought ok, cool idea but is it really that hard?  After all, some of our tournaments already feel like that.  As I was nursing my sore back and legs from watching Graeme play opponent after opponent I realized just how long 24 hours can be.  Was I expected to sit here for 24 hours???  If you think of all the things you can do in 24 hours, I bet no one had playing squash with 32 people on their list.  I really don't know where to begin with this post so I'll start with Friday night....


Friday

The highest bidder for the foot
massage is.... Victoria

   Graeme kicked off his 24 hours at 4:00pm playing long time club supporter Nick Dimitrijevic.  When I showed up at 4:30, I was a little concerned at the amount of sweat that Graeme already had going.  At his first break at 7:00, a foot bath and foot massage (that was auctioned off to the highest bidder) was required.  Unfortunately, the juniors also started out with loads of energy, as many were already on the court at 4:00 playing 3/4 court (more on that later).  To add to the Friday night activities, Dave ran a handicap tournament for the juniors.  With most of the juniors playing, it ran a little longer than planned.  However, the final was worth the wait as Kabir and Maxi overcame their handicaps (scores) to meet each other in a very entertaining final.  Kabir continued his strong play (no Al, it has nothing to do with you "mentorship") and defeated a much-improved Maxi Bistrev.
     Thanks to the many people who hung around late into the evening and created a very festive atmosphere.

Saturday Wee Hours

Carol and Emily dancing the
night away

   When I say morning, I mean after midnight.  A surprising number of people were still around and the juniors were still going.  I thought we were clear when we said they were to play in shifts and not continuous.  Victoria, Erika and Tara busted out the tunes and the festivities continued on.  We finally had to tell Carol that the event ended at midnight and we were all going home just to get her to stop dancing.

Chatham

     However, as people left, things began slowing down.  It was perfect timing for the the Chatham crew to show and liven things up :).  The next thing you know I was in a game of 3/4 quarter with 10 people at 2 am.  Now the problem became that the juniors were now tiring but we still needed to have some of them on the court in the wee hours of the morning.  We insisted that some of the juniors got some rest and forced some of them to stay on.  As the nighttime crawled by the energy level slowly dropped causing me to maybe fall asleep in a quiet, dark corner of the building.  Mary Pat, Victoria, Erika and Tara kept the show rolling by getting the juniors out of bed and on the court and seeing the Chatham guys off around 5am.

Andrew & Erika DallaBona

   A squash event just wouldn't be a squash event without the DallaBona's showing up in some kind of crazy attire.  I often wonder where they find these things.  Andrew and Erika dressed up as Fred Flinstone and Wilma.  While I didn't see Fred play, I hope he didn't use a stone racquet but the way Andrew plays, it might have helped.  
     I am not a morning person and it amazed me to see how many people that were willing to come out and play Graeme at what I consider a horrid time slot.  Your participation really helped us and got us through a difficult time.  A special thank you to the Chatham group who really went out of their way to help us out.


Saturday Morning

     By the time I returned to the fold at 6am, energy was at an all-time low.  The women were tired, the juniors were barely moving and setting a record for complaints in a 24-hr period.  Then came in the Moceri's.  At first I thought that John was having some intestinal issues until I realized he was going to keep Graeme going with his "fart app" (no endorsement here).  Little did John know but Graeme had his own version of the app, only this one actually created an odour.  The energy level slowly began to rise as people began to filter into the club.  I just feel bad for that poor member who showed up at 6am thinking he would be the first into the club and get a nice quiet workout.  There was nothing quiet about 6am.
    And so began the club waking up and as people started filtering in, everyone's mood lightened (except for the kids sleeping on the doubles court that had to leave because of a 9am scheduled match).  Graeme began hitting nicks again (not that many really) and the juniors began to repopulate the courts.  Before you knew it, we were starting the Adult/Junior doubles tournament and heading into our last few matches against Graeme.

Saturday Afternoon

      For the Adult/Junior Doubles Tournament, adults and juniors were randomly paired with each other and playing a one match knockout to the finals.  The rallies were long and the matches were incredibly close.  Many matches went the distance and in the end, the team of Marcy Porter/A-a-ron Nagy defeated Arthur Nagy/Amin Khan.
 DJ Thor was spinning the tunes to help Graeme and the juniors to the finish line.  Or maybe Victoria really hired DJ Thor because she didn't feel like taking Maisy to dance and instead had Maisy dance at the club (see photos).  Whatever the case, the excitement was building as Graeme was approaching the end of his 24 hours.  And what could be better than getting to play with his wife in one of the last time slots of the day.  Oh, and Kathy Moceri too.   Hmmmm......
   David Bshouty decided that he would contribute to the cause by riding a stationary bike next to the court for the last 4 hours of the event all while collecting donations.  Thanks Dave!  With all this going on,
     At 3:59:50, the countdown began and Graeme completed his 24 hours with his best shot of the day (literally), a cross court nick that Nick Matthew wouldn't have got.

Thank you's

     In the end it was great to see the support for Graeme and his junior program.  The amount of people that supported in one way or another (not just this event) really shows the community-mindedness (is that a word?  I teach math) of the squash club.  I know that our juniors are very appreciative and it is great to see the way that they interact with all the squash members because that is really what it is all about, creating solid citizens.

"It is done, can't wait to do it again!"

     Of course this event couldn't have happened without Victoria who organized a lot of this.  Without her we all agree that Graeme would be lost.  Thanks to Erika DallaBona (a new addition to the team) who arranged for our food, Graeme's food, music, keeping things on track, highlighting, and for the personal entertainment.   Thanks to Tara Jankuloski and Mary Pat Scarfone (she just refuses to take my name and I blame it on Dave) who kept the juniors on track throughout the 24 hours and assisted wherever possible.
    After watching a ton of squash this weekend, I am positive that I saw significant improvements in some of our players over the 24 hours.  Which makes me think about how many balls do you actually hit in a 24 hour event (great math question.... Phil/Matt).  Even Graeme was busting out some new shots that I had never seen.  I really think that we may be onto something here and I could have swore I heard him talking about making this a monthly event........
     Here is a folder that contains pictures from this event.  It is public so please upload any photos you have here, although you may need a gmail account.  If you don't you can email me.