District Spotlight—Rochester Squash

It is said that cities with cold, snowy winters are great breeding grounds for squash enthusiasts, adults and juniors alike, which is why it comes as no surprise that Rochester, NY, is such a hotbed for squash in northern NY. Nestled comfortably close to the Finger Lakes wine region in upstate New York, Rochester boasts (pun intended!) an active and thriving squash community.

Rochester has enjoyed past squash glory through its role in US Squash history beginning with a highly successful hardball singles tournament attracting the best players from the Northeast and Canada in the late ‘40s and continuing through the ‘70s. The city also hosted the nearly snowed out National singles in 1960, and again in 1990. This was followed by the very successful run of the George Armstrong Memorial doubles tournament, again attracting the top ranked doubles players in the Northeast and Canada. This flurry of doubles activity has produced a number of nationally ranked doubles players including, Renny Bowers, Dick Rice and Alan Ziegler. On the international scene, the annual Lapham Grant, US vs. Canada, tournament has been hosted four times in Rochester.

Mithun Mukherjee
Mithun Mukherjee

In the ‘80s, Fred and Carol Weymuller established a solid junior program at the Genessee Valley Club (GVC) which continues to generate outstanding junior squash talent today through its juniors coach, Kate Guyer. A little known fact is that US Squash CEO Kevin Klipstein himself is a Rochester native and grew up playing squash under the coaching of the Weymullers at the GVC. The GVC also hosts the popular Ward Riley junior tournament. This strong flow of junior squash talent in Rochester is supplemented by another junior program run by Mark Banford at the Midtown Athletic Club.

During the ‘90s, the University of Rochester squash team, under the tutelage of longtime tennis and squash coach Peter Lyman, produced all-American players such as Rishad Pandole and Ben Ari Elias. Today, the Rochester squash community is extremely fortunate to have Martin Heath in its midst. With a coach of Heath’s world class caliber, the current varsity squad has already broken through into the top ten and has injected a renewed enthusiasm for the sport locally.

Keeping this local interest and excitement alive is the Rochester Squash Racquets Association (RSRA), the focal point of individual, league and tournament play in the Greater Rochester area. Through prudent use of membership dues and endowment funds, the RSRA promotes regular youth clinics and exhibitions throughout the year. A refereeing and rules clinic is also in the pipeline for this year.

The RSRA is also one of a few SRAs with a strong online presence at its website (www.squashrochester.org). League management is provided through a combination of Railstation and Boxleague, a league management software developed and donated by Doug Blanding, a former Rochester squash player.

The Association’s annual flagship event is the Rochester Pro-Am (www.rocprosquash.com)—a Satellite level PSA tournament in its seventh year running. The pro event is usually accompanied by the amateur city championship and is supported through generous individual donations from local players and supporters. The tournament was first promoted in 2002 by Eric Hernady, a recent 5.0 National Skill Level Champion and initially aimed to provide young American squash professionals looking to break into the PSA circuit with an opportunity to gain valuable ranking points on the professional tour. Today, the tournament continues to serve this purpose while seeing its fair share of budding international professional squash talent every year.

With a committed core set of die-hards, increasing player base, a rapidly improving varsity team and a signature annual professional tournament, the Rochester squash spirit is alive and well.