New York, NY — The Women’s and Men’s College Squash Associations (CSA) recently announced their memberships have both voted to dissolve and re-form as one College Squash Association. The new CSA will have a smaller Board of nine individuals, the majority of whom will be independent directors while four coaches will still serve as directors on the Board. The current associations are each governed by Executive Committees of college varsity men’s, women’s or combined men’s and women’s coaches exclusively.
Women’s CSA President Wendy Lawrence welcomed the transition, noting, “I am so excited that the Men’s and Women’s CSA have taken this dramatic and forward thinking step to merge. The time has come to move college squash forward, to professionalize our governing body so that the sport can attract new teams, and one day, look to join the NCAA.”
Martin Heath, Men’s CSA President added, “After much thought, consultation, preparation and communication over the past 18 months, it’s an historic decision to merge into one new organization complete with new By-laws and a proposed board comprised of members of the squash community alongside current college coaches. While there won’t be any noticeable optical change in the short term, these changes protect the integrity of the college game, and will allow us to professionalize our organization, hopefully with full time employees, and will set up a platform for growing the college game throughout the nation and throughout the different divisions.”
The dissolution and re-formation will formally take place at the next CSA Annual General Meeting planned for mid-May, where it is expected the member institutions will elect a full slate of new directors. The process to consider these governance changes, including a series of six related conference calls among coaches and an independent Task Force over the last three months, also included the completion of a new set of By-laws with an updated committee structure, and has been coordinated with the support of US Squash. The current CSA – US Squash partnership in which US Squash provides administrative support for financial and event management is expected to continue, with US Squash initially serving as fiscal sponsor to the new organization.
Heath continued, “It is an exciting time, and we are very grateful for the work that Dent Wilkens has performed for us over the past few years and now in Kevin Klipstein’s expertise in guiding the process and using his experience to help draft our new By-laws. We look forward to increasing our partnership with US Squash, while still retaining coach autonomy.”
The CSA leadership may be reached via email to express interested in supporting this new direction.
Martin Heath: mheath@sports.rochester.edu and Wendy Lawrence: wendyl@email.gwu.edu
