After over a decade with www.us-squash.org as the flagship web address for the Association and the sport in the United States, U.S. SQUASH will transition to a new web design at a new address, www.ussquash.com. This means there will be only one website to find everything from tournament and league schedules, tournament information and online entry, ratings and rankings, U.S. Championships, coaching and refereeing, and all the U.S. SQUASH junior development program information players need to compete.
Most aspects of the move will take place in phases over the next two months. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of 2008 and will feature new branding for U.S. SQUASH and the sport, as well as sophisticated navigation tools by audience, by action and by geography to help members get the most out of squash and the site.
Your Membership Account and Benefits
Included in the shift to a new web address is the implementation of a new membership database which took place in September. The ability for “heads of households” to manage the accounts of individual family members will be one of the many enhancements included in future phases of the rollout.
Included in the initial phase of the change will be player profile pages, searchable and viewable by other squash players. Profile pages will include contact information, viewable at the members’ option, listings of tournaments and leagues competed in and teams players have played on. Competition results for the player dating back several years, including all tournaments and leagues is available. Final season rankings from the last several seasons, and player affiliations with districts and clubs are also viewable. Any squash player, member or not, will be able to create an account on the site and view profiles.
Once logged onto the system, members will be able to contact other members via email, post their availability to play, and book lessons with their pro. Members will also be able to sign up online for tournaments and leagues via the website. New Leagues and Ladder programs will also be available, and based on feedback from members, the U.S. SQUASH pricing structures have also been simplified and bundled.
Leagues & Ladders
U.S. SQUASH will roll out extensive League and Ladder programs throughout the fall. Already available as core offerings of U.S. SQUASH are the popular Team Leagues and Box Leagues. Added to these will be new league options for coaches, teaching pros and players, including Set Leagues, Flex Leagues, Challenge Leagues and Challenge Ladders to accommodate people’s varied schedule needs and desired level of competition.
Another feature, available to members and non-members alike, will be the players’ ability to enter their “friendly” match results into their profile to track their win/loss ratio. Although these matches will not count toward official ratings or rankings, they will appear in each players’ profile.
Tournaments, Schedules and Rankings
The new site will show tournament schedules and results in a format easily segmented by juniors, adults, doubles, etc., and be available for players to view results, and for Tournament Directors to manage tournaments. Tournament players will have the opportunity to enter any sanctioned tournament, even multiple tournaments at once, all online. Starting the week of October 20, U.S. SQUASH rankings will be published every other week.
U.S. SQUASH has worked extensively with multiple groups to gather input on design and functionality required to meet the needs of the squash community and will continue to work with our members, districts, squash professionals, promoters and partners to deliver on its goals to better serve and grow the sport.
