By Dan Kneipp
For years the Cayman Islands has been a heavy weight on the world financial scene, but recently their squash community has gone from a small, sleepy Caribbean squash club, to the home of some of the biggest events in squash. Considering that Cayman’s only squash club was demolished by a hurricane a few years ago, this hasn’t been an easy task.
Cayman is what you hope for in a tropical paradise. The beaches are straight from a postcard. The quality of the snorkeling and scuba diving is famous, partly because of the island’s crystal clear waters. This clarity is a result of Cayman being so low and flat that there are no rivers, and no rivers means no run off of sediment into the surrounding water—making for incredibly clear water. Cayman’s other selling points include its cleanliness and safety, the highest level of living in the Caribbean, and the proximity to the US, being only an hour from Miami.
Cayman isn’t very big. A little over double the physical size of Manhattan, Cayman’s population of 50,000 is just 3% of Manhattan’s. For a place this small it makes sense that there’s only one squash club; a club started in the late 70s as a non-profit members’ club that grew along with the island’s population the 80s and 90s.
Everything changed for Cayman squash in September 2004. The whole island was devastated by Hurricane Ivan, the 10th most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded (Katrina is 6th on the list). The clear-water benefits that Cayman gets from its flat terrain was suddenly a very dangerous liability with Ivan’s storm surge damaging or destroying 95% of Grand Cayman’s buildings. The squash club was demolished. Most of the roof was blown off, but even without the roof damage the club was ruined. The storm surge left much of the island six feet under water, and once the water flooded the wooden floors of the club, they were ruined.
With so much damage to the island, including all of the schools and roads, fixing the sports clubs wasn’t the first priority, but with such a fanatical base of players the club wasn’t going to be out of action for long. Some of the die-hard members couldn’t wait that long and played outdoor squash in the baking sun, running around on concrete floors.
Twelve months after being demolished the club was re-opened. With the new club, Cayman had the honor of having the largest, newest and most extensive squash facilities in the Caribbean with seven international courts in a modern, air conditioned building.
It has only been in the last couple of years that Cayman has really started focusing on big events. The first big pro tournament was held in 2009, attracting seven of the world’s top-10 women. The event quickly grew, and earlier this year they held their first ever glass court tournament. The 2011 event will have both Nicol David and Ramy Ashour attending, ensuring the men’s and women’s world No. 1s will compete. For 2012 the women’s World Open is in Cayman, followed by the World Junior Championships in 2013.
Tournament Director and squash pro Dan Kneipp has been the driving force for these events since arriving in Cayman in 2007.
“The tournaments have been great. It’s wonderful to use these events to attract the best players in the world and watch how exciting it is for a small club and small community. We use these big tournaments as the way to fund our junior program, so we’re able to attract over 1,000 kids getting free or subsidized coaching and court use. It’s a program that we’re proud of.”
The next challenge Cayman Squash is trying to achieve is to get more US juniors and US colleges to Cayman to play. Over the last three years they’ve had 10 different colleges use Cayman for a sports holiday, including Dartmouth and Brown. The consistent response has been surprise at how good the standard of squash and the facilities are.
Considering how far the club has come in the past three years, the future is looking very bright.
Future Events
Cayman will host a large junior tournament in January 2011. Details are available at www.caymansquash.com
The 2011 Cayman Open will be held in April, followed by the 2012 World Open and the 2013 World Junior Championships.
