Squash: not your average street ball

Acacia O'Connor Staff Writer

The sport of squash has been developing exponentially in recent years. This has been reflective in the College’s men’s and women’s squash programs over the past decade as well. Both the teams have become increasingly competitive over the past ten years, establishing a consistent reputation as one of the top teams in the country. The Brewer men have captured four New York State Championships in the past eight years. The women, have also had their share of the glory, having won the prestigious Seven Sisters Championship the past two seasons.

However, these teams and their coaches are not solely interested in the growth and benefit of their own programs. The women’s squash team and Coaches Jane Parker and Ben Oliner have been taking their skills to the streets. “Street Squash” is a community service program designed to teach youth the basics of squash. Street Squash has been around for several years in New York City in community centers and clubs such as the Harvard Club of New York City. Boston has developed similar programs under the name SquashBusters. These after-school enrichment programs for young people (6th through 9th graders) are designed to help kids learn squash skills as well as provide academic assistance and counseling.

The Poughkeepsie area Street Squash program is headed through the Catherine Street Center with the collaboration of Vassar College. Twice a week the kids from the Catherine Street Center will visit the campus to learn and play squash.

Women’s squash team captain Emily Morris ’05 has enjoyed her time spent with the children in the program. While squash has traditionally been an upper class leisure sport, Morris feels programs like these are opening the sport to a wider audience, which is certainly beneficial not only to the athletes, but to the sport as well.

“I know the kids really love it,” Morris said. “Getting kids into a great sport like squash is a lifetime gift. I know that they will have [squash] for the rest of their lives.”

As the program continually grows and develops, we may see it branching out to include more tournaments and competitive play for the young people involved and consequently, a greater reward for the students and coaches of Vassar.