Take Your Niece to the T.O.She

Clicking on the link, I read that the Women’s Professional Soccer League had suspended its season due to conflicts and expensive legal battles with its recently departed owner. “It is necessary,” said the league’s CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan, “to take the time to address current issues and solidify our business in order to provide appropriate support needed to achieve the League’s long-term goals.”

Really?? And what about in the short term, I couldn’t help thinking. My niece is twelve. A year is still a long time for her. In that year, she could be swept away by other interests— hopefully other sports (the WNBA is going strong; the Olympics are coming), but what if something less inspiring takes that spot? Sadly, I’ve been juggling too many other things to become a regular women’s soccer fan myself, but I was impressed while on a recent family road trip when my niece began reciting players’ names and stats.

“How do you know all this?” I asked her.

She looked at me like a I had a squash ball for a head. “I read the stats online,” she answered. The unsaid ‘duh’ hung in the air, although she’s way too polite for that. “And she subscribes to Sports Illustrated,” added her mother. Oh my, a niece after my own sports loving heart.

Seeing a girl excited about a sport—to play it, to watch it, to follow the pro players and get to know them—is a truly wonderful thing. And then to see it pulled away from her, is heartbreaking…and frustrating.

It is almost as frustrating to see a sport that I love available to watch, but without many women watching. I spent a week in January in Vanderbilt Hall of Grand Central Terminal, especially to see the top female pros playing in the Tournament of Champions and I saw nary (or rarely) a girl in the audience. Granted, this was the first year in quite some time that there was a women’s pro draw. I’m sure that it takes time to develop, and the fact that there was only one court (to be shared with the men) and another tournament (the Glo Greenwich Open) with a bigger purse that ended pretty much the day the women’s ToC draw started, certainly didn’t make things easy. But just as my niece likes to play and watch soccer, there must be girls out there who would be up for watching squash at its highest female level—if given the opportunity.

A big part of watching pro sports is getting to know the athletes who play them. I only dabble in tennis, so I’m not turning on ESPN to figure out a better forehand; I’m going to see if Serena can make a comeback. Once you know the players, the more you want to watch. Case in point, back at the ToC, after watching a number of up-and-coming teenagers wield their squash racquets and take down their (barely) elders, I look forward to what they would do next. Nour El Sherbini (EGY) had only been a name to me a few months earlier, but when I saw her on-court poise and graceful overhead volley drops, I was sure this sixteen year old would make even the best players muster more effort. That was certainly true of her countrywoman, Kanzy Emad El-Defrawy (EGY), whose stuntman-like dives and super-girl gets made her five game match against No. 1 seed Rachael Grinham (AUS) one of the most entertaining of the tournament (men included). Unfortunately, one of the least was the championship match between the Maria Sharapova of squash, Dipika Pallikal (IND) and Rachael’s younger sister, Natalie Grinham (NED). Pallikal has a huge following in her native India, undoubtedly due to both her blazingly fast shots and fiery looks, but the crowds weren’t there to cheer her on as Grinham doused the fire Pallikal had shown in earlier matches with a deluge of smart shots and great accuracy.

So what could bring the crowds to watch the women of the ToC? What could get girls to gaze into the glass-walled court with the same fascination that I had that week? Here are a few ideas of my own…not exactly fully baked yet, but with some ingredients to put into the mix for next year.

• Take Your Daughter/Friend’s Daughter to ToC Day. Yes, it’s a spin-off of Take Your Daughter to Work Day which I partake in every year with my nieces, but if it’s a success at work, why not at Grand Central, a place that is vastly more impressive than my desk and rolodex? If we love squash and want more girls and women to play, doesn’t it behoove us to share our passion with young women?
• Move the women’s match times to later in the afternoon so that school teams can come, and give them a great deal so that they do. As extra incentive, include a clinic with a pro and a time for girls to meet the pros, take photos, and get autographs.
• Ask box seat owners to donate unused seats during women’s matches to girls who win a seat either through a lottery or writing why they want to see the pro women play… of which I’d be happy to judge!
• Ask a corporation/business/person with more money than me to fund a ToC Women’s squash t-shirt for girls who come to special events and possibly also for sale as additional fund-raising. Come up with a catchy t-shirt tagline: Girls Squash Grand Central, Tournament of Champions: NYShe Squash, Squash Goddess of Grand Central… you get the idea. I’d wear one and buy more as gifts.
• Make sure the top female players show up. Yes, I know this means money, but this is NYC, people. If we can’t find money here and show off the best of women’s squash, we belong back in the cave…although I will only go provided the walls are white-washed and there’s room for my lob serve.

Now I know that ideas like these take time and money and probably more people than the ones currently working 24/7 to make the ToC the success that it is on the men’s side. But think about it, wouldn’t you love to see the passion of my niece’s facebook post written about squash? Give her the opportunity to see it in one of the greatest places on earth and it could be.

Tracy Gates plays squash in New York City and writes about it on her blog www.squeakyfeet.wordpress.com