Gold #3

     10 of WSF juniors competed at Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga at the Jesters Gold#3.  As this was a CORE event (Team Canada qualifier), the best from around Canada showed up to earn points for the team.  WSF juniors continue to play well and push the established top players.   The highlights of the weekend were Amin Khan, finishing 3rd in his first attempt at the ultra-competitive U17 division and Ananya Maheshwari winning the U13 division.  Ananya has dominated her age group for a number of years now and continues to play better and better.  Well done Ananya!
      Ryan Guthrie and Aaron Nagy played very tough in their first rounds but could not hang on for wins.  However, both found success in the bronze division and ended up playing each other in the finals.  It is always tough playing your training partner in a tournament but these played their hearts out.  Rallies were very punishing and both displayed incredible shot-making.  Aaron ended up pulling it out in the end, 3-1.
     Sara Khan and Hannah Guthrie continue to close the gap on the top players in Canada.  There is little difference between them and the other players in the U17/19 draws.  Hannah lost a tough 5 game match to one of the top seeds while Sara, drawing the #1 seed, played her tough with very few easy points.
      Aparna Maheshwari, made it to the semi's where she ran into the #1 seed.  Despite playing with an injury Aparna played very hard but in the end lost 3-0.  Aparna went on the finish 4th.
     Usman Khan always plays everyone tough.  There is no easy point with him and he always give players a hard time with his persistent retrieving and power game.  He lost a heartbreaker 12-10 in the fifth in the consolation semi-finals.
     This weekend also brought out some newer faces to the gold scene.  Gina Marinelli is approaching the end of her junior career and wanted to get in her last tournament.  Gina played very well and will go on and become a very successful club player.
     Subhan Shabaz is getting his feet wet with the higher level of play.  Despite his inexperience he showed that he is ready to compete in the U13 draw.
     Final results can be found here.

Junior Gold #1

        This past weekend was the start of the junior squash season with the first event being held at
Mayfair Parkway in Toronto.  The first tournament is always an interesting one with players moving divisions, some getting back from taking time off and some improving immensely over the summer.  Our juniors worked hard all summer and were looking forward to seeing if all their training would pay off.  The tourney started with the always tough boys U17 draw.  Luca Dalla Bona and Aaron Nagy both opened up with wins.  However, both drew a seeded player the next round and were relegated to the consolation draw for Saturday.  Jagroop Bhangoo put forth a valiant effort in his match but unfortunately, could not pull out a first round victory.  Amin Khan was the #1 seed in the U15 draw and he easily rolled to victory.
     We had 3 girls competing in the combined U17/19 draw,  Sara Khan, Hannah Guthrie and Mackenzie Elliott.  Mackenzie played a strong first round match but could not pull off a victory.  Sara Khan was dominate in her match, easily moving into the second round.  Hannah lost her first match 12-10 in the fifth.  Ananya and Aparna Maheshwari rolled to victory in their first matches in U13 and U15 respectively while Vishaal Mehta lost against a very tough opponent.
     Saturday saw a lot of squash played.  Amin continued to cruise through his draw until the semis in which he played an incredibly long 5-game match in which he pulled it out 16-14!  On to the finals for Amin.  Ananya and Aparna made it all the way to the semi's where, despite a high quality of play, neither could get into the finals.  Almost all of our players went deep into the consolation draw and managed to stay out of the bronze draw.  This is a big improvement over last season.
     Sunday had many of our players still playing.  Hannah was able to avenge her first round loss by beating the same girl she lost to Friday night in the consolation finals.  Ananya and Aparna both ended up placing fourth in their respective divisions.  Amin went on to capture the U15 title in a convincing manner.   Well done to all.  Complete results can be found here.  Next tourney is Oct 13, 14, 15 in Windsor.  Come out and watch some of the action.

Summer Gold

Nikki Todd (Team Canada), Luca Dalla Bona, Ariel Mccuaig

     Many of our juniors have been training hard this summer attending many camps and training sessions, including a great camp this past week.  Not only was the camp full but the calibre was very high with some out of town players, one even as far as from Ecuador.  It didn't hurt that some of the Team Canada girls were seen around the club the last couple of weeks.  To cap off all this training Squash Ontario ran its first every summer Gold circuit series with the last stop being Windsor.  There were many top-ranked players in this tourney and there were no easy matches for anyone.
     In the girls draw, Aparna Maheshwari played Ariel Mccuaig (Toronto) in the finals.  These two have met before and every match has gone the distance.  Today proved no different.  Unfortunately our hometown favourite couldn't get past Ariel's shot-making in the 5th game.
     In the boys draw we didn't have to worry about cheering for a hometown favourite because both boys were from Windsor.  It was the 400th time Aaron Nagy and Luca Dalla Bona have met in a tournament.  And just like the girls final, the result was anyone's guess.  The match saw long rallies with great retrieving and of course, 5 games.  Luca squeaked it out in 5th for tournament victory.
     Well played by everyone this weekend in the tournament.

End of Season Junior Party

Aaron Nagy (winner), Kabir Bhangoo (finalist)

     On Saturday Graeme & Dave hosted the year end junior squash party.  60 players showed up for the festivities.  The afternoon started off with the Club Championship junior final between Kabir Bhangoo and Aaron Nagy.  The match lived up to expectations.  Both players began attacking and retrieving right out of the gate.  Too many mistakes by Kabir led to a Game 1 win for Aaron.  Aaron came out attacking in game 2 and Kabir could not respond.  Kabir finally his groove in Game 3 and turned the tables on Aaron as Aaron was the one making uncharacteristic errors.  Game 4 was all Aaron.  He came out attacking and Kabir had no answer.  Congratulations to Aaron for his second Club Championship win!
    After the match Graeme & Dave moved on to end of year awards.  Male Player of the Year in the Development group went to Jacob Bhatti.  Jacob made great strides to improve his game this year.  He was frustrated with losing so often that he sought out assistance to make his game better.  He has worked very hard and is now on a 4 week winning streak!  The Female Player of the Year in the Development group went to a relative newcomer, Lena Ferrante .  Although she may be a newcomer she has squash in her blood as she is cousins with Mackenzie Elliott.  Lena works hard every lesson and never complains about how hard the work is.

Lena Ferrante, Serena Marcon, Nathan Brockenshire, Jacob Bhatti

   In the Performance group Male Player of the Year is Nathan Brockenshire.  Nathan has completely embraced the struggle.  He works hard every lesson, comes out and solo hits, seeks advice from the coaches and heeds that advice.  Nathan has also spearheaded the Squash Skills campaign for our club.  The Female Player of the Year in the Performance group is Serena Marcon.  Serena is a talented multi-sport athlete that is improving by leaps and bounds.  Serena takes the game serious and is always working to get better.  Well done award winners!!!
     Since this is the last session of the year, we are saying goodbye to some of our juniors as they graduate high school and move on to other things.  Colin Moore (moving to British Columbia), Berto Mill (football at Western), Kabir Bhangoo (Ottawa University and hopefully starting up a squash team), Gina Marinelli (St. Clair College for Accounting),  Ryan Guthrie (St. Clair College for Graphic Design).  One of the goals of the Junior Committee is to provide our graduating juniors with an educational bursary.  The committee is proud to say that this is the second year that we have been able to honour this.  Of course, doing things like this would not be possible without the incredible support of the members.

Gina, Berto, Colin, Kabir, Ryan

     After awards it was an afternoon full of fun games put on by the older players.  Thanks to Carrie Furmanek for organizing the food for the afternoon.  Pictures of the day can be found here.  If yours son/daughter is interested in enrolling in the fall clinics, you can download sign up forms here.  If you are interested in any of the camps, they can be found here.  

Gold #4

      This weekend 11 of our juniors competed in the fourth gold event of the season at the Toronto Skating Cricket and Curling Club.  Friday night was quiet a busy night at the club as they had a doubles Pro-Am, a PSA event and the Junior Gold going on at the same time.  Even Gerry Dee made an appearance.  This event turned out to be the biggest junior event in a number of years as 150 players competed.  Friday didn't end for Windsor until 11:00 because, as luck would have it, Alex Mroczkowski, in his first Gold event, was the last match of the night.  
       After the first round matches only Amin and Luca won to stay in the main round of their respective 
draws.  Luca played a phenomenal first round match against a very tough opponent.   He hung tough in 
game five and kept pressure on his opponent, forcing him into many errors.  
       Day 2 saw matches start early in the morning and we were warned that 155 matches had to be played 
in one day so to anticipate delays.  By the end of the day, courts were over 2 hours behind and again 
Windsor was playing one of the last matches of the night.  The Windsor players played great on Saturday. 
 Jagroop was a tactician on the court, moving his opponent from front to back and side to side and 
dominating much of his match.  However, a few bad breaks in the final game led to Jagroop losing the 5th.  
Aparna showed much improvement by taking an opponent she had previously lost to in 3 to the 5th 
game this time.  Hannah demonstrated great perseverance in her match after going down 2-0 to come back 
and win in the 5th.  Ananya proved that she is not at all out of place in the U13 division as she ended up
winning the consolations.  Phil disposed of his Saturday opponents with his deft touch and retrieving ability. 
Ryan's retrieving and deadly shots caused his opponents all kinds of problems in the U19 division.  Usman
was as entertaining as always as he frustrated his opponents (and sometimes spectators) by chasing 
down every ball and never giving up.  Subhan, while new to gold tournaments, proved that he is ready to 
play at this level.  
       Of course, Windsor had the last match of the night with Sara Khan.  Her 7:30 time turned into 10:00.  It
 was great to see all of the juniors hang around to watch her play.  Sara was up against a formidable 
opponent.  She played great, using her power to move her opponent all around the court.  However, in the 
end it wasn't enough to take the match.  
      Despite the late Saturady finish, Sunday was another early start.  The highlight of the day was definitely
 Amin playing in the U15 final.  It was a great match that had long rallies, great shot-making and amazing 
retrieving.  Unfortunately, Amin's opponent was just too consistent and eventually forced Amin into 
uncharacteristic errors.
     All in all, the juniors played amazing this weekend.  The best part was the support and camaraderie 
that the kids showed each other throughout the weekend.    Final results can be found here.

Canadian Junior Open

Juniors with Diego Elias (WR #23)

    What a great four days of squash!  WSF juniors played players from all over the world.  I guess we can't complain about travelling to Toronto when New Zealand brought a big contingent.  Also, Andrew was able to negotiate a home and home series with Barbados :).  The level of squash was unbelievable as the best juniors in the world descended on White Oaks.  No juniors were able to stay in the main round of their draws.  However, after the first round, many of our juniors began to win some matches.  To win any matches at the Canadian Open is a feat.  To win a draw is a great achievement as most draws had a full 64 best squash juniors in the world in them.  Congratulations to Luca Dalla Bona who won the Bronze division of the U15 draw in a gut-wrenching 15-13 in the 5th.  Well done Luca!  Complete draws can be found here and pictures from the weekend can be found here.

Ontario High School Squash Championships

     This weekend many of our juniors competed in the Ontario High School Squash Championships at Executive Squash in Vaughn.  There were 115 players competing from ten schools throughout Ontario.  The usual powerhouses were there including A.N. Meyer (Niagara) and defending champ, Lawrence Park (Toronto).  Tecumseh Vista was the 3rd largest team at 16.  It was great to see the addition of Kennedy and Massey this year.  The Massey team was started by the Khan girls and they were able to recruit enough players to field a team.   Grace Kim at Kennedy has done a great job all season getting her players out on a regular basis.   All told, the Windsor area brought 25 players to the tournament.
     The tournament divisions were broken up into ranked players and unranked players. The unranked players were divided into junior/senior and male/female.  The #1 seed, Akasham Rajagopaul, was fresh of his win at the Nationals the week before so to say that the competition was tough was an understatement.

   Team Kennedy quickly discovered how difficult tournament play could be, however as they played more matches throughout the tournament, all their play improved.  By the end of the weekend, Kennedy was eager to get home and practice more.  Massey was led by #1 seed in the ranked girls draw, Sara Khan, and by #2 seed in the unranked draw, Zahra Khan.  Sara dominated all the way to the finals where she was unable to put away the #2 seed.  Zahra dominated her draw all the way to the very end and won the Junior Girls Unranked division.  Well done girls!  Two big wins alone earned them enough points to be in the top half of all the teams.
      Tecumseh Vista had a mix of boys/girls, ranked/unranked and had a player in every draw.  Vista also made up 3 of the 4 ranked girls in the tournament.  Alec Cerimagic survived a couple of very tough 5-game matches to make it to the finals of the Junior Boy's Unranked final.  The final was incredibly close and saw Alec give up a 2-0 lead.  It went right down to the wire but Alec pulled it out in the end.  Well done Alec!
      Vista's other winners included Hope Hengsperger (2nd) & Simone Jankuloski (3rd) in the Senior Girls Unranked division, Berto Mill (3rd) in the Boys Ranked and Hannah Guthrie (3rd)  Girls Ranked and Matt Jankuloski won the Boys Unranked Consolation.
     However, in the end, Tecumseh Vista didn't earn enough points to take the title and ended up finishing 3rd.  All in all a great success for Windsor and the future looks very bright for our high school teams.  Pictures of the event can be found  here and final results can be found here.

Ontario Open

Ananya Maheshwari
U11 Ontario Champ

      White Oaks in St. Catherines was the host site of this year's Ontario Open and Windsor had 15 players participating.  This tournament always brings out the best players and the competition was fierce.  Windsor players were also fortunate enough to be coached by Anthony Graham, an active PSA pro who was in town for the weekend to train with Dave.  However, the strength of the draw took its toll on Windsor as Aparna, Ananaya, Amin, David, Sara, and Berto were the only ones who were able to pull out a first round victory and stay in the main round.  The rest of the weekend saw great squash amongst all the Windsor players.  Once again Ananya Maheshwari dominated the U11 without losing a game the entire tournament and add another title to her amazing season.  Well done Ananya!  Sara Khan also won the consolation draw.
      This tournament is also when Squash Ontario awards one female and one male player for the Jim Mason Play Fair Award.  The award recognizes players who have demonstrated fair play on and off the court and is an ambassador for the game of squash in Ontario.  This year's recipient was none other than our David Mill.  David was honoured for his great demeanour as a player and also being a positive influence on squash in Ontario.  Jamie Nicholls (Executive Director of Squash Ontario)

also took this opportunity to recognized the "amazing" things that are going on in Windsor right now. Congratulations David, you earned it!
     All the juniors would like to thank Anthony for coaching them this weekend.  Full results can be found here.

Bottle Drive Over

     If you ever wondered how much your garage that is full of empties is worth?  Well, you don't have to wonder anymore.   We had an informal contest as to how much money sat in the front room in the form of empties.   Any guesses?  Let's just say that the guy working at The Beer Store had a hard time believing that all this came from a health club.  Don't worry.  We said it was our members "friends" that brought in the empties :).  After 2 hours of counting the junior's added $507 to their fund.
     In regards to the junior fund, a lot has happened with it over the past year.  The fund has grown and now supports many more things.  It subsidizes lessons, clinics, pays for Windsor players to have a coach at out of town tournaments, provides a bursary to graduating juniors, and help supports our gold tournament.  The juniors appreciate the members support of them and would like to thank everyone that donated bottles (including the person that dropped off full ones).

    On a side note, book off Saturday, July 16 for this year's golf tournament.   The venue has been moved to Rochester Place and it will also coincide with a summer party for club members.  Stay tuned for details.

Gold #4- Toronto Cricket and Curling Club

  If you haven't been to the Toronto Cricket and Curling Club, it is quite an experience.  It is a very hopping place with an unbelievable amount of activity.  The club dates back to the 1880s yet still has the feel of a very new club.  If you get tired of watching squash, you can go watch curling or figure skating or tennis.  Or you could just hang out in large and quaint restaurant.  The squash area has 6 single courts and 3 doubles courts, all with great viewing.  Good thing too because while we were there, they were playing the semis and finals of a PSA event.

   14 of our juniors participated in the Gold event here this weekend.   Our progress was very clear this weekend as David Mill, Sara Khan, Amin Khan, Aparna Maheshwari and Hannah Guthrie all advanced into the main rounds.  Unfortunately, none of them won in the next round.  However, David Mill lost 12-10 in the fifth, while Sara, Amin, Aparna and Hannah all lost in very close matches.  The same can be said for all our other juniors.  No one was outplayed and all matches very tight.  We even had U11 Canadian champ Ananya Maheshwari playing up a division.  Ananya has dominated the U11 division and felt it was time to take her game to the next level.  That would be a 10 year old playing against 12 year olds!
     By the time the weekend was over, 10 out of our 14 ended up winning at least one match and for a few of them, this was their first gold tournament win.  Aparna Maheswari won the U13 Consolation, David finished 3rd and Ananya won the U13 Bronze division.  To sum up how close we are.  Berto Mill had 4 match balls in the first round against the eventual winner.  

     Final results can be found here and pictures can be found here. 

Gold #3- National Squash Academy

     11 of our juniors, plus adopted Windsorites, Rily Bore (Sarnia), Gabe VanMorsel (Chatham), Natasha Pensler (USA) participated this weekend in Gold #3 at the National Squash Academy. Unfortunately, high school exams kept many of our juniors out of this tournament.  This was also David Morrish's first tournament with our juniors.  I know he was very impressed with their conduct this weekend.
     It was a great weekend of squash as our juniors continued to improve at these events.  On Friday night, our juniors played very tough and were losing in 5 games to players that beat them in 3 or 4 games in the past.  A number of opponents and parents commented on how much improvement our players have made in just a couple of months.
    Saturday saw some incredibly intense squash.  Berto Mill was typical Berto, diving all over the court and making his opponents suffer with his incredible retrieving.  He also had the rally of the weekend that saw him dive, play his next shot from his bum and get up to win the rally.  Maanav made an incredible comeback after being down 7-0 in game 5 to win his match.  Mackenzie made every rally tough on her opponents.  Vishaal had some incredibly long rallies with the top seeded player in his division.  Natasha Pensler, playing up a division, played a great match in beating one on the tougher players in her draw.  Luca Dalla Bona played by far some of the best squash he has ever played.  He played a smart game and worked his opponents all over the court and clearly has jumped to the next level.

   Come Sunday, Ananya, Hannah, Vishaal, Maanav, David, Natasha, Gabe, Riley were all still playing. At the end of the day, Hannah won the Bronze division and David won the consolation. Ananya won her 3rd Gold tournament.  Ananya continued her dominance despite making a concerted effort to transition to one-handed play.  She looks stronger than ever!
    Draws can be find here.  Pictures from the weekend can be found here.

Canadian Junior Open

     294 of the best juniors from all around the world descended upon White Oaks this weekend.  The calibre of squash was so high it made a typical Ontario Gold event look like a mid-summer training session.  Players that have dominated the Ontario circuit were suddenly struggling with these new players.  12 of our juniors set out to match their skills with the rest of the world.  After the first round, only Stefan Houbtchev (still technically our junior playing in his last junior tournament), Berto Mill and Natasha Pensler remained in the main round.  That said, everyone of our juniors played strong and were able to stay in many rallies.
    In the consolation round we started to find some more success.  Sara Khan, Amin Khan, David Mill, won and advanced to the next round in the consolation.  Stefan was defeated in the second round of the main draw and ended up playing his old training partner, David Mill, in the next round.
    As the tournament headed toward Tuesday, less of our juniors remained in the draws.  Stefan was forced to withdraw in the 4th round of the consolation due to an injury.  Aparna and Ananya met each other in a sister showdown in the finals of the Bronze draw with Aparna winning it in the end.  But the highlight for Windsor Squash was Natasha Pensler.  Although Natasha lives in the states she has been coming to Windsor to train with our juniors.  Natasha lost in the finals of the U13 to a fellow American.  Well done Natasha!
    Despite being a very long weekend, the juniors gained a lot of experience playing, watching and listening on how to be successful at such a high level.  Complete draws can be found here.  Follow them on Instagram @ windsorsquashandfitness

Gold #1

      The first Squash Ontario Gold junior tournament was this weekend at Mayfair Parkway in Toronto and it saw a very large and impressive contingent from Windsor.  19 juniors from Windsor Squash and Fitness participated and Graeme also came up to provide coaching to each and every one of them.   Friday night got off to a bit of a rough start with many of our juniors drawing seeded players in the first round.  Despite this, every one of our juniors played these matches extremely tough and were never outclassed on the court.  At the end of Friday, only David Mill & Berto Mill stayed in the main round.  Amin Khan, Ananya & Aparna Maheshwari and Vishaal Mehta all played in a round robin format.
     Saturday saw a lot of activity as it seemed like our kids were playing every time you turned around.  Berto got knocked out of the main round by Ravi Seth while David advanced to the finals on Sunday.  Some of the juniors advanced in the consolation while other got relegated to the bronze draw.  Ananya and Amin were steadily beating all their opponents in the round robin.  By the end of the day Saturday many of our players took up table tennis and basketball for the remainder of the weekend.
      With only a handful of Windsor players still playing on Sunday, it gave everyone an opportunity to cheer on their teammates.  Mackenzie Elliot won her first gold match, advancing her to the finals of the U19 Bronze draw.  Unfortunately, Mackenzie came up against a very strong and older opponent.  Hannah Guthrie bounced back from a rough start by handily winning the U15 Bronze division.  Ananya breezed through her draw not even dropping a single game all tourney to win the U11 draw.  Great job Ananya.  

     However, the most exciting match of the day was a nail-biter between Amin Khan and Griffin Manley for the U13 championship.  Amin went down 2 games despite playing great squash.  Amin kept the pace up and worked his opponent around the court and easily took the next 2 games.  Game 5 saw long rallies and tense shotmaking.  In the end Amin pulled it out 11-8, winning the U13 division.  Well done Amin!
       The final match of the weekend saw David Mill and one of his training partners at the National Squash Academy, an Egyptian named Mohanad Hekel, play for gold.  Hekel has amazing array of deceptive shots (see Amr Shabana) as well as great retrieval skills.  David was out for redemption after losing to Mohanad at last year's Gold #3 at NSA.  This time around David proved too much for Mohanad to handle.  Congratulations to David for winning the first Gold tourney of the year!!!
      All in all it was a great weekend of squash.  Final results can be found here.  Many of us overheard how good the "Windsor crew" looked in their clothing and about what a big impact we are making in the draws.  When you think back one year ago, many of these players were playing the Gary Waite tour, if they were playing tournaments at all.  The other comment that we heard was how much people were looking forward to coming back to Windsor for Gold #2, October 23, 24, 25.  Speaking of which, we are looking for sponsorship and volunteers for this tournament which is going to be far bigger than last year.  If you are interested please contact Graeme or Victoria.

Golf Tournament

Jagroop, Phil and Hannah waiting to tee off

       Thank you to the 48 people that participated in our 2nd annual WSF Golf Tournament.  The weather cooperated and I believe a good time was had by all.  Last year's winners of Valente, Leavitt, Wilbur, Guthrie (Dave) just couldn't put it together this year.  Mike Wilbur was forced to carry the team and a big load he had to carry.  We had many rookie teams participate this year, most notably 8 of our juniors who should probably stick to squash.  And it was a new entrant into that tournament that ended up winning it.  Somehow, Jody Brown, Aaron Gillis, Matt McEachran and Graeme Williams(?????) turned in a -6.  What is more amazing about this score is that they basically did it as a threesome.  I thought they were in trouble when Graeme texted me an hour before tee-off asking if he could rent clubs at the course. :)  Well done guys, enjoy your Red Wings tickets.

Tournament Champs- Matt McEachran, Aaron Gillis, Jody Brown, Graeme Williams
Longest Drive (male)- Jody Brown
Longest Drive (female)- Marge Holman
Closest to the Pin (male)- Mike Wilbur
Closest to the Pin (female)- Kathy Moceri
Hole-in-One winner- no one.  Al Valente can rest easy for another year
Best Dressed- Rod Larson

     The money raised from this event go into fund that is used throughout the year to assist and promote the game of squash and those playing it at the junior level.  This fund is used to subsidize our junior's lessons, travel, clinics, coaching certifications, and referring certifications.  It is also used to fund new, economically-challenged players to the game as well as assist entry into our tournament from players who would otherwise be unable to participate.  

This event couldn't have happened without the following sponsors:

Tom Porter, Anis Khan, Nick Dimitrov (Radix), Windsor Squash and Fitness, Graeme & Victoria Williams (T-Sports), John Mill, Al Valente (Valente Travel), Jeff Derochie (Jeff Derochie and Associates), Peter Wares (TAB), Arthur Nagy (CAPS Canada), Melinda Nagy (Provincial Pharmacy), Fratelli Pasta Grill, Andrew DallaBona (Riverview Steel)

Also, we would like to thank the following who donated a door prizes:

Andrew DallaBona (Riverview Steel), Graeme & Victoria Williams (T-Sports), Mark Hipkins (Wilbur-Ellis), Chris Chamandy (South Windsor Animal Hospital), Mike Wilbur (Holland Cleaning Supplies), Barry Leavitt (Enwin), Jim Scarfone (Scarfone Law), Ron Funkenhauser (Crimestoppers), Arthur Nagy (CAPS Canada), Matt McEachran (Centerline), Steve DeMarco (Promoworks), David Scarfone, Marge Holman (LAWS)

All pictures from this event can be found here.  Stayed tuned for next year's event which promises to be bigger and better.

Team Canada Exhibition

     What a day for Windsor Squash & Fitness Club!  The fun began for our juniors as the Women's Pan-Am team (@dzlet,  @CornettSamantha,  @NikoleTodd1,  @HollieNaughton) showed up for a Q & A and a training session.  Our juniors got to see how much training goes into becoming one of the best in your sport.
      The evening brought out what everyone was looking for... exhibition matches.  Before the main matches, the girls played games against many of our juniors.  I could have swore that I heard Kabir say he was going to win his game.  I never did find out how it ended.....  In the end the juniors appreciated the experience to hit with the team.
      Finally it was time to see what Team Southwest could do against Team Canada.  First match was Elora-born, Sarnia-living, Windsor-favourite Micaala Seth taking on Danielle Letourneau.  Unfortunately for Team Southwest, Micaala wasn't at the top of her game and went down to Danielle.  Team Canada 1, Team Southwest 0.
     Stefan Houbtchev took the court to compete against Hollie Naughton.  Hollie's retrieving and shot-making proved to be too much for Stefan to handle.  Team Canada 2, Team Southwest 0.
    This put a lot of pressure on David Mill as he tried to outshoot Nicole Todd.  This was the most entertaining match of the night as they tried to outshoot each other, providing the audience with many entertaining shots.  Nicole played the entire match with a smile on her face which made the crowd think she was just enjoying running David around.  However, in the end, David couldn't close out the match.  Team Canada 3, Team Southwest 0.
      This means that there was no way Team Southwest could win.  So the final match of the night (Graeme vs. Samantha Cornett) was about personal bragging rights.  Student vs. Coach.  Graeme played like he was 10 years younger (not really but he never reads the blog so he won't know I said this).  Graeme ended up with Team Southwest's only win.
      It was great to see all the people out, old squash players and new and a great time was had by all.  Good luck in the Pan Am Games!  Here are all the pictures from the event.

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.
   

Save the Date- Golf

      Because so many people are inquiring, the date for the Second Annual WSF-Junior Golf outing has been set.  Plus, I heard that a certain team is planning practice sessions all summer to retain their lucky year one title.
      I hate to disappoint all of you that were looking forward to golfing again in arctic temperatures but the date has been moved up significantly.  This year's outing will take place on Sunday, September 20th.   And I have been able to secure a shotgun start.  Mark it on your calendars.  Details to follow.

24 Hour Squashathon

      You may, or may not, have heard about the upcoming Junior Squash Fundraiser.  Beginning Friday, May 15th at 4:00 pm (or 16:00 as Graeme would say), Graeme will be playing squash for 24 straight hours.  You can sign up here to book in your time slot (1/2 hour).  We are asking you make a donation for your 1/2 hour time.   We do need to fill all the slots so any of you night owls that feel like playing squash at 3 am, please sign up.

     While Graeme is on court, our juniors will also be attempting to have players on the court for 24 hours, however, they will be doing it in shifts.  The juniors are going out and getting their own pledges.

      On Saturday morning, the juniors not playing will be conducting a car wash out in the parking lot.  

     To make this a more club social and festive atmosphere, there will something going on for the entire 24 hours, including music, food, rounds of lightning squash, and a doubles tournament.  Here is a list of the events.  

     The doubles tournament will be run Calcutta style.  Sign up sheet is here.  If you wish to play, you sign up as an individual ($5/player) and you will bid on what junior you would like to play with.  Should you win the tournament, you will be half of the total purse.

     To date the funds raised to assist our juniors has been a tremendous success.  Your continued support of this program will be instrumental in supporting the continuation and expansion of our existing programs.  As well, half of the proceeds from this event will be committed to a family involved in our program who have recently experienced a significant loss.

Juniors on the Road

Aaron with Number 24 in the world, Alistair Walker

     This past weekend saw our juniors heading in different directions.  Vishaal Mehta played in the Super Silver Championships in Toronto.  Vishaal won his first round and then drew the number one seed in the draw.  Despite playing a great match, Vishaal ended up going down 3-0.  Vishaal won a couple of matches in the cons before finally losing in the quarter finals.  Well done Vishaal!

     And going in the other direction, Aaron Nagy, the Khans and the Maheshwari's traveled to Cleveland to compete in the Gold event there. Aaron traveled the same path as Vishaal in his draw.  Amin lost in the quarter-finals of his draw and his sister Sara lost in the semis of the consolation.  Aparna won the plate round of her division and her sister Ananya won the consolation.  Overall Windsor's junior performed very well this weekend.  

Ontario Junior Open Championships

     This was a busy squash weekend with the TTC in Windsor and the Ontario Junior Open Championships at White Oaks in Niagara.  Congratulations to Ananya Maheshwari who won the U11 draw, Stefan Houbtchev who finished 4th in the U19, and Amin Khan who finished third in the U13!  Well done Windsor.