Junior Gold #4

    This weekend 7 juniors took part in Gold #4 at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and  Curling Club.  Almost all players won their first round matches to move on to the next round.  Far different from last year at this time when many of our players continued to have difficulty staying in the main round.   Ananya (seeded #1 in U13) cruised through to the finals where she met up with Gabrielle Waite of the great Waite squash family.  Ananya proved to be too steady with too many good shots for Gabrielle.  Congratulations to Ananya for a well-played tournament and bringing home the gold medal to Windsor.
     Amin has made the jump into U17 and quickly realized that it is a much different game.  In the second round, he met up with Dylan Deverill (4th seed), a player who he has never beaten.  Not this time as Amin was able to take Dylan in 4 games to move on to the semi-finals.  It was during this match that Amin had the rally of the weekend.  Despite numerous nicks by each player during the rally, neither one could finish off the rally.   After what felt like 50 shots, Amin was finally able to put Dylan away.  Unfortunately for Amin, in the semis he discovered what moving up to another age division means.  You can't get away with the same shots and suddenly you find yourself under intense pressure.  In the end Amin finished in 4th place.
    Dylan Charles made his first Gold appearance (outside of Windsor).  Despite playing his first two round very tough, he wasn't able to pull out a victory.  It wasn't until the 3rd round that Dylan found his form, easily dispatching his opponent.  Dylan ended up in the Bronze final where he played great and battled down to the wire but unfortunately could not get the victory.  However, Dylan showed that he is ready to make the leap to the Gold tournaments.
     Ryan drew the #3 seed in the first round.  He almost always draw a seed in the first round.  Playing the seeds in the first round has caused Ryan to raise his overall game and it really showed in the next round.  Round  2 was a 1 hour, 15 min affair.  He must have been inspired by Jahangir and Shawn's talk of the record.  The rallies were long and neither playing was making many mistakes and both were chasing every ball down.  Despite 2 match balls in the 5th, he could get the victory.  A great match all the same.  Ryan won his next round and ended up in the Bronze final where he again played very strong and lost in a close match.
     Hannah won her first match easily and drew the #1 seed the next round.  She played her very tough and every game was a carbon copy of the previous.  Play was tight, right up to 8-8.  A couple of bad bounces and uncharacteristic errors and the game was lost.  Game 2, repeat.  Game 3, repeat.  Despite the 3-0 score, the match was very close.  In the next round she drew her practice partner Sara.  Sara lost the first round in a very touch match.  She won down 2 games only to come back and tie it up.  Game 5 went back and forth but Sara lost in extra points.  Sara proved to be the stronger player against Hannah in the next round.  However, Sara wasn't able to get past her next round though, bringing her weekend to a close.
     What would a Gold weekend be without entertainment from Usman.  Usman won his first round easily, leading him to the #2 seed in the draw.  In typical Usman fashion, he chased down every ball and didn't give up any easy points.  Every game in this match was close but he wasn't able to get the victory.
     All in all, Windsor played great.  Final results can be found here.

Junior Gold

   107 of Canada's best juniors descended on Windsor this weekend to battle it out for squash supremacy.  As this tournament is a world junior designated selection event for players looking to represent Canada in international tournaments, we had players from PEI to British Columbia enter.         
     Matches lived up to their expectation beginning with the first matches as the action was fast and furious with very few players walking away with easy wins.  23 of Windsor's players took part in the action led by Amin Khan (U15, #2 in Ontario) and Ananya Maheshwari (U13, #5).  Amin was playing up in the U17 division and Ananya was looking to continue her solid play in the tough U13 division. 
     Sara Khan started off the tournament against Marlow Benson (#3) and got out to a quick 2-0 lead.  However, Marlow clawed back and was able to take the match 11-9 in the 5th.  Phil Dimitrov dug deep and pulled out a gut-wrenching win with an 11-9 win in the 5th game.  Vishaal Mehta easily cruised into the second round with a 3-0 win.  Aaron Nagy continued his strong play and advanced into the main round for the second tournament in a row.  Amin and Ananya also moved on to the 2nd with wins. 
      Saturday proved to be a long day of squash with matches beginning at 8:30 and continuing right into the evening.  Of all our players that moved on to the main round, only Amin and Ananya continued into the main draws.  However, that didn't stop the great play going on in the consolation.  Vishaal and Aaron both advanced to the con finals where they lost tough matches.   The match of the weekend was a standing-room only match of Amin vs. Nikhil Ismail (#1).  There were many long rallies with great retrieval and shot-making.  Amin kept the Windsor crowd on the edge of their seats as the match went down to the wire.  Unfortunately, Amin could not hang on, losing 11-7 in the 5th.
     The favourite part of this tournament is the Saturday dinner catered by Windsor Palace.  Over 200 people attended including representatives from the City of Windsor, Squash Ontario, Squash Canada and other local dignitaries.  The juniors presented a thank you video to Graeme and Dave for all their hard work.  The highlight of the night was when Anis took the mic to announce raffle winners.

Players who did extra reffing had their name put in a draw for an iPhone.  The iPhone was won by a very excited Shirin Batra from Toronto.  However, Anis was not done.  All parents who attended the dinner had their names put into a raffle for a laptop.  Petronella Nbende of Toronto was the lucky recipient.  And last but not least, all the coaches were put into a raffle for a Microsoft Surface Pro,  which was won by Squash Canada's Steve Wren.  Steve was kind enough to re-donate to a junior which our very own Phil Dimitrov.  All of these items were donated by Ciena Healthcare.  It was a great evening that left many people talking about what a great event Windsor puts on.
     Although Sunday saw many tired players, the level of squash remained high.  Amin finished in 4th place and Ananya played amazing in the finals but couldn't hang on to win her first U13 title.  The girl's U19 final lived up to its expectations.  Brooke Herring of British Columbia defeated National Champion Charlotte Orcutt 11-9 in the 5th.  The boys U19 final was expected to be a close math and that is was.  National Champion Akasham Rajagopaul vs. U17 National Champion, George Crowne.  The match was never separated by more than a couple of points.  Both players showed great shot-making and amazing retrieval skills but what stood out the most was the high level of sportsmanship.  George was able to pull it out 11-9 in the fifth.
     Windsor was spoken very highly from all out of town participants and events like this really help put Windsor on the map as a destination to come to.  Thank you to all the members that were inconvenienced this weekend.  Thank you to all the members that came out to watch.  Pictures from this weekend can be found here and complete draws can be found here. 

Grade 3 Squash Festival

 

   Sunday was a very busy day at the club with the finals of club championships (more on that later) and the Grade 3 Squash Festival.  Graeme and Dave have been visiting schools since after Christmas and have been working with Grade 3 students in these schools.  They set up temporary courts and run a league much like ours.  The top male and female players from each school were invited to come to Windsor Squash and Fitness today and compete for their school.  22 students and their parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters showed up to cheer on their children.
     The level of play was amazing and after an hour the each division was down to the top 4.  No surprise that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as Maisie Williams won the girls division.  The winner of the boys division was Chandan from Tecumseh Vista.  However, the focus was on fun and competing for your school.  The winning school was Giles Campus with a dominating performance.  I am pretty sure that we will have some new juniors starting in the fall......

Ontario Junior Open

     This for me (David) was a break through tournament in the sense that Windsor Squash really competed in every age group. For the first time we had 7 players make it through the first round (Amin, Usman, Sara, Jagroop, Aparna, Ananya and Natasha). Kabir, Ryan, Aaron, Niki, Manaav, Phil, Luca, Vishaal and Mackenzie completed the Windsor Squash contingent. Luca rolled his ankle in his fist match and was unable to finish the tournament.
Mackenzie lost a tight 5 setter in the bronze U17 final as did Aparana in the U15. Natasha won the U17 cons and Amin made it to the main semis of the U15. 

     Windsor won big as Aparna Maheshwari and Amin Khan won the William Bannerman Spirit of the Game Award.  Established in 2016 by the Bannerman/Crossman family, this award is presented annually to the junior player in Ontario who best represents the values of William Bannerman by playing with the utmost sportsmanship and respect for the game, and who has a genuine love and joy of the sport that is infectious. The award recipient will be a junior player who is likely to play squash for life, encourage and coach others of any level and be a humble and enthusiastic shepherd of the sport. This player is not necessarily someone who has achieved high performance success, but someone who will clearly impact the sport and other players through his or her "spirit of the game". One male and one female will receive a $250 bursary each.  Congratulations Amin and Aparna in representing Windsor squash!

Bottle Drive

It's that time of year again to drop off your empty bottles at the club for our annual bottle drive.  Bottles will be collected until January 21st.  You can leave them in the room by the entrance.

Bottle Drive

Junior End of Year Awards

      Saturday was the last day of junior sessions for the year.  Most definitely it marks the end of the most successful year of squash for Graeme and Dave and the juniors.  We had a record number of players competing at the Gold level this season.  Ananya won National Championships, many others left their mark on many tournaments and Graeme won Coach of the Year.  Next year we will be even better and more dominant in the province with the addition of David Morrish this year.
      As per a tradition that Graeme started, on the last session of the year, the older players planned an afternoon of fun for the younger players.  All the juniors that showed up on Saturday were treated to fun games all afternoon.  However, the final session wouldn't be complete without the end of season awards.  The focus is always on effort and the players that won an award demonstrated consistent effort every time they stepped on the court.  Congratulations to the following:

Effort Awards

Jacob Nixon
Morris Harding
Julia Bondy
Gina Marinelli

Male/ Female Player of the Year

Usman Khan
Sara Khan

Ontario Junior Closed Championships

  

    This weekend, 14 of Windsor’s juniors headed up to Vaughn to participate in the Ontario Junior Closed tournament.  Overall, 130 juniors from across Ontario came to compete and attempt to become provincial champion.  The competition was very tough but our juniors held their ground. 

     

    Luca Dalla Bona, Aaron Nagy, Amin Khan, Sara Khan, Ananya Maheshwari, Aparna Maheshwari, Berto Mill and David Mill all won their first round matches.  This was a big turning event for some of these players as this was the first time they have been able stay in the main round of a Gold event.  However, that also meant even tougher competition in the next round.  Only Amin and Ananya were able to move on past the first round. 

     Saturday was a tough day for most of our juniors, as many of them were knocked out.  Come Sunday only Ananya, Amin, Sara, Usman, Hannah, and David still had matches to play. 

     Ananya cruised to another tournament win, barely losing any points.  Well done Ananya!  Despite having match ball in the ¾ match, Amin could not hang on in a very close and exciting match.  Sara Khan lost in the semis of the consolation and Usman lost in the consolation finals.  Aparna won the consolation of her draw and Hannah cruised to a Bronze division victory and David won the ¾ match.

     Overall, there was definitely an improvement in our play.  Each tournament our juniors are getting closer to winning against the rest of the province and everyone is noticing.  Windsor usually brings the biggest contingent to any of these tournaments and people notice how much our players are improving and supporting each other. 

     On a side note, many of our parents were approached by people that came down to our tournament (October, Gold #2) and they all commented on how it is the best tournament on the calendar and it is becoming a “must attend” part of the squash season.  The other positive thing that everyone experienced was how friendly people were when they were out in the community.  Well done Windsor!

    Final results can be found here and pictures here.

Ontario High School Squash Championships

 

   This weekend Tecumseh Vista set out to defend their Ontario High School Squash title.  Our team increased to 17 players this year, with most of them part of our junior program.  The tournament draws were broken up into a Ranked Gold and a Ranked Silver, unranked Junior Girls, unranked Senior Girls, unranked Junior Boys and unranked Senior Boys.  We had players in every draw.
     The ranked draws were incredibly strong yet David and Stefan easily moved on in the Gold draw. Ryan, Niki, Kabir and Maxi didn't have the same success in the Silver draw.  Despite all close matches, none of them were able to stay in the main round and were all relegated to the consolation.
     By far the largest draw was the Senior Boys unranked (about 40 players) and Marcus and Bryce Hughes moved on easily.  Newcomer Hope Hengsperger had little difficulty in her first couple rounds in the Senior Girls draw.  Anna Houbtchev Junior Girl's draw had a few last minute dropouts that required it to go from a draw to a round robin.  Many of our players in the Junior Boys unranked were experiencing their first tournament action and we surprised at the intensity of the matches.  Unfortunately, none of our junior boys were able to stay in the main round of that draw.
     Day 2 saw much closer matches.  David was able to move on to the finals but Stefan came across a very hot player in Akashan Rajagopaul and was off to fight for third.  Anna continued to easily defeat her opponents in her round robin and was soon headed to the finals.  Bryce met his match in the quarterfinals, losing to last year's champion, while Marcus barely broke a sweat on his way to the finals.  Hope played a great semi-final match against a very hard-hitting player.  Hope went down two but fought back to tie it up at 2 each.  After a very close and tightly-contested game 5, Hope was unable to pull out the victory.
    The finals of the Senior Boys draw was the most watched match of the weekend and it was also a rematch of our Gold final in Windsor in which David beat Akasham 12-10 in the fifth.  This match was equally entertaining with very long rallies and Akasham chasing down David's best shots.  An hour later, they are tied at 10-10 in the fifth.  Both players had match ball but couldn't pull it off.  At 13-12 for David a long rally ensued that saw Akasham dive 3 times only to get back into the rally before David finally put him away.
     Marcus was looking for redemption in his final.  He was playing the same player that knocked him out of the draw last year.  However, Marcus' training was clearly on display as he returned his opponent's best shots with better shots.  Like David, Marcus also went 5 games and pulled it out.
     Anna's final was pretty anti-climatic after David and Marcus.  Anna continued to dominate and easily rolled to victory.  Despite winning 3 golds, and a bronze, that was not enough to repeat as champs.  Lawrence Park of Toronto had 2 golds and 2 silvers.  Unfortunately, because Anna's draw was a round robin, tournament rules state that draws less than 8 cannot earn the same number of points as the bigger draws, which means we lost by a narrow margin in the end.  On a positive note, we placed 2nd, a great feat for the Windsor area and again it was commented to me that many people in the squash world are well aware of the positive things that are happening in Windsor and recognize that we are now a hotbed for new talent and a force to be reckoned with in the future.  On a personal note, I couldn't be prouder of the team and of sportsmanship they displayed.   They represented the school and the region in a very positive manner.   Pictures of the event can be found here.

2015 Harrow Junior Squash Finals

On Sunday afternoon, the finals of the 2015 Harrow Junior Squash League were held. The league lasted in total 8 weeks with 11 players participating, ranging in ages from 9 to 13 years old. With all the marbles on the table, the junior players brought their “A” game. The heavy favorite to win the league was Jagroo Bhangoo, although some of the other juniors were prepared to take him down at all costs. The dynamic duo of Armaan Sandhu and Rajanpaul Sandhu who both have vastly improved during the course the league were ready defeat Bhangoo. In the end, it was the young upstart Kolten Brosseau who gave Bhangoo the real test. They met in the final match of the day with everything at stake. Brosseau came out swinging with his quick movement and great anticipation skills that forced Bhangoo to have tight shots that left little room for error. The 1^st game it was tightly contested, although Brosseau allowed Bhangoo to jump out to an early lead and was forced to play from behind the whole game. The 2^nd game was very similar to the 1^st game, Bhangoo up early and Brosseau trying to battle back. In the end, Bhangoo pulled out the victory. Good job to all the players who played in the league.        

Rajanpaul Sandhu and Armaan Sandhu

Kolten Brosseau and Jagroo Bhangoo

Windsor Domination

      Ok, maybe not domination.  However, Windsor was a very strong presence in the Silver Grand Prix Finale at the National Squash Academy this weekend.  To participate in this tournament you had to be among the top 16 point earners throughout the season in the Silver tournaments.  Sporting their new Windsor Squash clothing, Windsor made its presence felt and took home 5 medals.      
      Hannah Guthrie won the Girls U15 draw, losing only 1 game in the process.  In the finals, she defeated the number one seed in the draw, a girl who she lost to in a previous silver.  Adopted Windsorite, Riley Bore (from Sarnia but plays in Windsor a fair bit), won the very tough Boys U15 draw.  Despite the tough competition, Riley remained steady, making few errors.
      Aaron Nagy had a very tough semi-final match and his shot-making was put to the test as his opponent ran down everything short of a nick.  In this case, retrieving surpassed shot-making sending Aaron to the 3/4 match in which he won handily.

Aaron and Usman

      Always entertaining Usman Khan seemed to be in a battle in every match he played.  All the way through to the finals he was able to pull out the close games.  However, in the finals his energy level was matched by his opponent and Usman won 2nd place in the Boys U13 draw.

Hannah, Aaron, Riley, Vishaal

      In possibly the tightest match of the weekend, Vishaal Mehta, went down 8-1 in the first game of the finals only to fight back and tie it up at game ball.  However, he just couldn't pull out the game.  Game 2 was a much closer game and again it went down to the wire with both players hitting great shots.  In the end, Vishaal just couldn't get the critical points and ended up in 2nd place in the Boys U11 draw.

   Phil Dimitrov suffered a momentary lapse in Game 1 of his first match, allowing his opponent back in after dominating the first 10 points.  Phil couldn't get the momentum back and was relegated to the consolation side of the draw.  Some thought he did that on purpose so he could have more time watching Diego Elias (world junior #1, world rank #47) train??????
      A comment that was made to me as we were leaving the event was that "Windsor came and took home all the hardware."

Aaron and Diego

Gary Waite Tour- Final Stop

Back row(l to r)- Emily Guthrie, Niki Bistrev, Ryan Guthrie,
Luca Dalla Bona, Gary Waite, Aaron Nagy
Front row- Jagroop Bhangoo, Maxi Bistrev, Dylan Charles
Hannah Guthrie

     Another long season of the Gary Waite Tour came to a close Sunday in London.  Despite it being
March Break, many juniors came from all across Southwestern Ontario.  Windsor was once again well-represented.  In the over-14 division, Aaron Nagy and Niki Bistrev battled it out again.  After many long rallies and great shot-making, Bistrev just couldn't overcome Nagy's consistency.  In the under 14 division, it came down to Luca Dalla Bona and Hannah Guthrie.  This match went down to the wire with Luca pulling it out.  A shout out to the person that tried to influence the match by turning off the lights.  :)
     Since it was the final stop, that meant season-end awards.  Points are awarded for performance and participation over the season.

Boys Over 14- Ryan Guthrie (winner), Aaron Nagy (runner-up)
Boys 11-13- Luca Dalla Bona (winner), Phil Dimitrov (runner-up)
Girls 11-13- Hannah Guthrie (winner)
Boys Under 10- Gabe VanMorsel (winner)

Most Dedicated- Emily Guthrie

Over the course of the season Windsor dominated this event, not only in squash but in attendance.  Many of these players will have graduated from this tour and it is time for the next wave of Windsor talent.

Golf Tournament Plaque

Phil thanking Al

It seems like so long ago now, I believe at the time there was green grass and the sun was shining.  And to think we thought it was cold that day....... Yes the 1st annual (hopefully) WSF Golf Tournament.  10 foursomes battled it out at Belleview but only one team remained at the end.  I am not going to mention who.  They have boasted, tweeted, facebooked enough about it and keep talking about a repeat that they don't need any more recognition.  Conveniently, one of that foursome took upon himself to have a plaque made up to adorn the squash halls of the winning foursomes.  I'll leave it up to you to find it.

Busy Junior Weekend

Ryan and Niki warming up on the
all glass court

   

      For many of our juniors this was a big weekend.  This was our second opportunity at competing at a Gold level event.  This weekend also gave some of our newer juniors another opportunity to get some tournament experience in at the fourth stop on the Gary Waite Tour.   For some diehards, they did both!


Dunlop Gold #4 

    The National Squash Academy (NSA) in Toronto hosted the 4th Gold event of the season.  After our event in November, many juniors we looking forward to once again testing their skills against Ontario's best.  17 of our juniors participated and represented Windsor Squash and Fitness in great fashion.  Day 1 saw only Berto and David Mill move on in the main round.  Day 2 was full of many great and close matches.  It was evident that WSF juniors have greatly improved, we were just lacking a shot here and there to take many of the matches.
     The following juniors took part in this event; Niki Bistrev, Maxi Bistrev, Jagroop Bhangoo, Kabir Bhangoo, Luca Dalla Bona, Phil Dimitrov, Ryan Guthrie, Hannah Guthrie, Mackenzie Elliott, David Mill, Berto Mill, Sara Khan, Amin Khan, Ananya Maheshwari, Aparna Maheshwari, Vishal Mehta, and Aaron Nagy.  Complete results can be found here.  A special thanks to Graeme for bringing his whole family up to coach all the kids.  And thanks to all the juniors who were called upon to do some impromptu babysitting (Phil........).

Hannah and Mackenzie hanging with
#1 in Canada, Samantha Cornett

Pictures from this event can be found here.

Gary Tour #4

     As if two full days of squash wasn't enough, some players left the Gold event and went right to the Gary Waite stop in Waterloo. Others made the trip up from Windsor.  The results were quite opposite of the gold event where we struggled to win matches.  At this event, Windsor again dominated.   Aaron Nagy dominated the day winning the 14+ division with little difficulty.  Phil Dimitrov won the 11-13 division but not without some effort.  Phil encountered Luca Dalla Bona in the semi-finals in what has to be their 100th match against each other.  I think the series is tied 50-50.  Today Luca got into a hole early and wasn't able to respond to Phil's deadly drop shots.  It is very evident that our juniors are improving by leaps and bounds and will be competing with Ontario's best very soon.

Harrow Junior Grand Prix 3

Harrow Junior Grand Prix 3 – Windsor November 1^st 2014

There was a buzz of excitement at the Windsor Squash & Fitness club this weekend as we held our first ever Squash Ontario Junior Event. After last year’s event being cancelled, we were delighted to attract 27 entries and run Boys Under 11 and 15’s events as well as a girls Under 15’s event.   The squash was exciting and played in a fantastic spirit all day.  Special thanks to Marcus Moceri, Niki Bistrev and Kabir Bhangoo who assisted in the running of the event. They were great at keeping the court schedule moving, collecting scores and updating the draws. We also awarded an effort prize for each division to a player we thought maintained high levels of effort in every match regardless of the result.

Under 11 Boys

David Badalov from White Oaks proved too strong for the field winning all of his matches.  He won both his matches in the final round Robin 2-0.  In second place Sujai Shah from London played well throughout showing good promise for the future.  Third place went to Julian Attard who was playing in only his second event.  The effort prize went to Faazil Khan.

Under 15 Girls

The Under 15 girls were made up of six players and on paper it was difficult to pick a winner.  In the end, Hannah Guthrie played some great squash to win the event beating Zara Khan 2-0 in the final.  Third place went to Aparna Maheshwari who beat her sister Annanya 2-0.  The effort prize went to Mackenzie Elliott.

Under 15 Boys

This was the largest draw of the event and had 12 players.  There were some cracking matches, especially the semi final between Amin Khan from Windsor and Riley Bore from Sarnia.  After sharing the first two games, Amin took the third, 13-11.  In the final, Amin faced another Windsorite, Aaron Nagy.  Again the first two games were shared before Amin took the third, this time 11-9.  Riley Bore recovered to take third place and the effort prize went to Philip Dimitrov.

A huge congratulations to all who took part and many thanks to the parents willing to travel and make the event possible.  We hope to see you all back for the Gold Event!