By Selena Maity
When I first heard of the news from my mother that I had been invited to participate in the 2010 Ontario-American Challenge, I was in the car returning home from squash camp. I was thrilled that I had been asked to represent the USA team in an international tournament. After an intense, fulfilling squash season both individually and as part of the Baldwin School team that came in fourth in the Girl’s High School National Championships, I had taken a breather for a few months. However, this Challenge became my incentive to whip myself back into shape. To prevent my muscles from transforming into jelly, I started training regularly in June at the Berwyn Squash and Fitness Club, with my sister Alisha, and my coach Luis Sanchez. I was glad to learn that Josh (BU15) and Linnea Hughes (GU13), who are also Berwyn players and whose father Dominic manages the club, were also playing in the Challenge.
On Thursday, August 12, my family and I packed the car with my luggage for Canada. After an hour and a half of worrying that I would be late, we arrived at the Newark airport, on time. As my mother and I walked through the sliding doors, we found the squash group and saw many familiar faces. I met the renowned coaches, Gareth Webber, Chris Smith, Pam Saunders, Fernanda Rocha, Jacques Swanepoel and Nathan Dugan flying with us, and of course, the eminent organizer of all junior squash events in the US, Conor O’Malley. After we received our tickets we checked in, and we were on our way!
It was a very short flight to Buffalo where we met the other players who flew in from Boston, and we took a bus to the resort. After dinner, we went down to the courts for our first practice as a team. For our warm up, we started off with three-quarter court, and then we were split up into groups to play a competitive game of offense/defense. On Friday morning we were at the courts by 9:30 am…for our first encounter with the Canadian Team. We began with reverse singles test matches. My GU15 division, consisting of Jennifer Davis (No. 1), Lindsey Scott (No. 2), Addie Fulton (No. 3) and myself (No. 4), split our four matches. After we rested, the US Team was split up into groups to practice in rotations. The drills we did in preparation for Sunday included boast drive and rotating rails, adding in shots to make the drills more challenging. When the practice was over, we rotated with the other groups and had free time to relax. Later, both the US and Canadian teams met in the lobby of the resort to take a bus to a park near the border of Canada. At the park, the two teams socialized by playing soccer, Frisbee, and football and by sitting on the picnic tables, getting to know each other.
On Saturday morning, we warmed up at the squash courts for three separate games of offense/defense: The Americans vs. The Canadians (Under 13, 15 and 17). After my GU15 division satisfyingly beat Canada 5-3, we played best of three matches with the Canadian players in our division whom we had not yet played. We continued our matches and played a scrimmage match against the opponent that we would be playing the next day in the real competition. After dinner, we left for Niagara Falls where we walked along the path to look at the extraordinary panoramic view of the falls. We returned to our resort, but before we went to our rooms, the USA team convened to talk about the big day ahead of us.
On competition day, we wore our elegant dri-fit blue tops paired with the white skirts/shorts, and our official jackets. During the introductions for our matches, each member of the USA team exchanged a U.S. SQUASH pin with their opponent’s pin from Canada. We shook hands with the coaches, high-fived our teammates, huddled, and had a very loud team USA cheer before the number fours went on court. It took me five games to defeat my opponent, but Addie Fulton and Lindsey Scott both swept their matches in three. Our number one player, Jennifer Davis, lost her match in five games against Canada’s Alyssa Mehta, but she fought tenaciously until the very last point and played with remarkable poise and finesse!
Overall, USA defeated Canada with a whopping 19 matches to five. After trading shirts with our opponents for keepsakes, our ebullient team had a pizza lunch at the resort, our last meal together. After taking turns carrying the shining trophy, we boarded the plane and arrived home soon after to say our final goodbyes. This trip to Canada was a tremendous opportunity and a great squash experience for both my teammates and me. I will cherish these memories forever.
