Actually, it doesn’t matter to me one bit whether you’re any good at squash. If you’re reading this magazine, the odds are you are. You’re probably very good.
It doesn’t matter.
What matters is whether you get out there regularly. What matters is that you keep coming back. What matters is that you love watching, reading about and thinking about squash.
Have you ever seen a sport survive when only the best players play? Have you ever seen a successful sport when children aren’t entranced?
So many people think we need to get people to play more tournaments. So many people think that we need to focus on leagues. So many people are wrong. Tournament participation is fine. Leagues are doing okay.
On the other hand, have you ever been in squash facility where the courts were empty? Have you ever decided not to join a club because there wasn’t a real squash community? Have you ever been disappointed because you couldn’t find someone to play when you were hankering to get on court?
Squash needs all of you who play again and again with your one faithful opponent. Squash needs all of you who have a regular weekly doubles game with the same four people. Squash needs the clubs and local pros who encourage players to just hang out and jump on court against other players who are hanging out.
You are the players who love squash because of the sweat. You love to tease your regular opponents both before and after playing. You love the camaraderie of your regular game. You love the post-squash shower. You love having a beer after your match. You love getting a bite to eat after you play and knowing that you have done the workout to deserve it. You love the rapport you have with your club pro. You are the essence of the game.
When I was growing up, my sisters and I all knew that on Thursday night, Dad would be home late because he was a member of the regular Thursday night doubles game at the Heights Casino. That game has been going on for more than fifty years now, and its participants have somewhat changed over time, but Seth Faison and John Titman have been regulars since its inception.
At the Heights, everyone knows these charming two octogenarians (each of whom looks twenty years younger and continues to break the hearts of many Casino women), but the wider squash world doesn’t. That’s okay. They don’t care. They pass around the broken racquet True Green trophy (for the player who has devoted “too much” time to squash over the past year) with a joke at their annual dinner, they are mainstays in the club and the locker room, and they are a huge part of what keeps the game alive.
At private clubs, public facilities, university gyms, and school courts, there are hosts of players who barely know that there is a US Squash organization, who don’t read Squash Magazine, who don’t have the current racquets or shoes, and who almost never get to see the top pros. But they keep coming back. They organize their own internal ladders, they find opponents who give them a decent game, sure, but whom they like even more.
In Pittsburgh, there is a player named Alice Mitinger who didn’t play on her college varsity, who doesn’t travel to tournaments, and who doesn’t watch squash online. But she knows everyone in the Pittsburgh squash community, she plays in the local tournaments organized by other Pittsburgh members like Lafe Metz or local pro Dulio Costa, and she has hosted visiting tour pros at her home. Her cookies are renowned among lower-ranked PSA pros.
We all love watching the pros with their gifted shotmaking, their miraculous retrieving, their stunning power, their long and complicated points. But they had to come from somewhere, and most of them came from small clubs around the globe where there was not a touring pro. They gravitated to junior programs in facilities with avid squash communities, they got instruction from local pros who cared more about the game than the money they made, and all of them played with local adults as their games improved.
This is a thank you to all of you who relish in being stepping stones for junior players whose games will quickly move past your own. Thank you to all of you who support your local pro and who keep showing up with a smile on your face. Thank you to all of you who host WISPA and PSA players at your local pro tournaments. Thank you to all of you who keep locker room banter alive. Thank you to all of you who make it fun for others to be around the game at your local courts.
I have one favor: because so many of you keep squash alive mainly in your own local universe, many of your cohorts won’t see this thank you note. Pass it on, if you can, because you all are part of what makes squash work, what makes squash fun, what makes it all worthwhile. While I don’t care if you are any good at the game, I do care that you know that you are really good for the game.
