Grade 3 Squash Festival

On Saturday, WSF hosted 15 Grade 3 players from 3 schools.  Graeme has been visiting Central, Vista, and LaSalle for 6 weeks and running an intramural program at those schools.  The top players were invited to take part in the Squash Festival at WSF.  It was really amazing to see students not even able to hit the ball in week 1 actually having rallies on Saturday.  The winning school was LaSalle and the individual winners were Seth Ferris (LaSalle) and Kennedy Awender (Vista).  Winning individuals earned a free winter session to the junior program.  Thanks to Dave and Carrie for ensuring this event went off without an issue.

Gary Waite #3

      This past weekend proved to be a busy one for junior squash.  It was also the 3rd stop in the very popular Gary Waite Junior Tour.  9 of our up-and-coming junior stars made the trek all the way to Waterloo for this 1-day event.  Congratulations to Carter Furmanek for taking 3rd place.  He was only point away from getting into the finals.  Other notable performances were Manour Shahbaz who won the 10 and under consolation draw.  Lucien Stojanov who won the 10 and under Grinner division and Shubhan Shabaz who won the 14+ Grinner division.  Current standings can be found here.  Next stop, Windsor on Jan 21. 

Canadian Junior Open

     This past weekend WhiteOaks hosted the Canadian Junior Open.  291 players from all over the world competed including 11 from Windsor Squash and Fitness.  The level of competition was unbelievably high and there absolutely no easy matches to be found anywhere.  Sara, Amin, Hannah, Ananya, Aparna all managed to stay in the main draw after the first round.   However, the second round proved to be considerably tougher and they all succumbed to their opponents despite very strong play.  If it was any consolation (no pun intended), many of Ontario's had a difficult time moving on to the next round.  The consolation draw quickly looked like an Ontario Gold tournament.  In the end our best finishes were Ananya (consolation finalist) and Hannah (consolation semi-finalist).
      While some of the players may not have been happy with their finish, it is worth noting that they were playing against some of the best juniors in the world and were holding their ground.  Games might have been 3-0, rallies were tough and Windsor proved not to be a pushover.   Overall, international tournaments are a great experience and build character.  They met players and made friends with players from different countries.  Players return home realizing what they have to do to be successful.  Complete draws can be found here.