U.S. Junior Bronze Championships
The weekend of March 23-25 saw 150 players descend on the first-ever U.S. Junior Bronze Championships. The tournament was hosted at Dominic Hughes’ Berwyn Squash and Fitness Club in Berwyn, PA. With the successful launch of the Bronze event, US Squash completed the build out of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Championship structure which evolved from the Future Stars concept dreamed up by Fred Weymuller in the mid-1990’s and implemented by the first US Squash Junior Development Director, Steve Gregg, now the Executive Director of the local Philadelphia urban squash and education program, SquashSmarts.
Total participation for the Gold, Silver and Bronze Championships this season was more than 700 players, not including the U.S. Junior Open hosted in Seattle, last December. And it is certainly no coincidence that three urban programs, CitySquash, StreetSquash and SquashSmarts contributed to the Bronze tournament’s success by entering over 30 players—ushering in another new era for US Junior Squash.
U.S. Junior Silver Championships
The U.S. Junior Silver Championships was hosted April 13th – 15th by Yale University in New Haven, CT. This tournament is the former “FutureStars” event, re-branded the Silver Championships last season and is open to players with a ranking below the top 32 in their division. Open to American citizens only, but able to accommodate more than 32 players per division, the tournament draws nearly 300 players consistently. With up-and-coming players competing in every division, the weekend was full of close matches and exciting finishes.
Ben lives in Alamo, California, and plays squash at the San Francisco Bay Club. He is a freshman at Monte Vista High School; however, the school does not have a team, so he does all his training at the Bay Club, where he is coached by Swiss champion, Dominique Chiquet. Ng first heard of squash two years ago, and went to the Power Squash Academy that summer. Last summer he started with Chiquet, and says that since then his game has taken off.
When Ng won the Bronze Championships, he had just recovered from a fractured hand, and was just focused on playing his best rather than winning, but surprised himself and with a ranking of 96, and won the BU15 division. Ng then decided to try out the Silver Championships. Ng had a strong showing through all rounds of the Silvers, culminating with him coming back from 2-0 down to win the BU15 finals.
Since starting squash two years ago, Ng has secured sponsorships with Dunlop and Hi Tech. He trains a great deal with Chiquet and attributes his success this season to his great coaching and the support he has received from his family and friends. Ben is an up-and-coming player who loves squash, and we look forward to seeing his improvements and his game grow in the coming seasons.
