At the College Squash Association (CSA) Annual General Meeting held on Thursday, May 5, 2022, the CSA membership, made up of representatives from every varsity team, elected four new members to the Board of Directors while confirming a new term for one current independent director.
Having just completed a partial first term of two years, Richard Chin was reelected for another term as a Class II director. This new term is of the standard independent director length of three years. Chin, the Head Squash Professional at the Harvard Club of New York, has played an integral role as one of five CSA independent directors over the last two years, and he will continue to dig into matters related to sport development and rules and regulations.
Joining Chin as a Class II director is Edgardo Gonzalez, the Director of Squash at the Squash & Education Alliance. An alumnus of CitySquash and Hobart College, Gonzalez has extensive experience coordinating squash programming in underserved communities nationwide and coordinating with coaches at all levels of the game. Gonzalez was the captain of his team at Hobart and will tap into his wide-ranging experience to help college squash grow in a variety of ways.
The CSA Board of Directors resolved to add a sixth independent director in March 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the implementation of that resolution until this year. The new director, joining in Class I for a new three-year term, is Will Carlin, former champion-level college (Yale ’85) and professional squash player who has filled many roles in the squash community and Olympic movement for over 20 years. Carlin has already positively impacted CSA activities for the past few years as the Chair of the Adjudication Committee and a great ambassador for the sport.
Two new coach board members were also elected as part of the voting during the Annual General Meeting last week. Mark Allen, the men’s and women’s head coach at University of Virginia, and Mike MacDonald, the men’s and women’s head coach at Connecticut College join the Board after meaningful stints on two active CSA committees. Allen is a member of the Nominating & Governance Committee while MacDonald serves as chair of the Emerging Teams Advisory Task Force. Both coaches will now serve a two-year term on the Board, which can be renewed up to three times.
The CSA wishes to applaud the outstanding work of Jeffrey Laikind, one of the original independent board members who helped lead the reorganization of the CSA governance structure in 2017. Laikind is cycling off the board as his latest term ends, but his energy, enthusiasm, and consistent production of ideas will be thought of fondly and with reverence.
Thank you also to Penn Men’s Head Coach Gilly Lane and Columbia Interim Head Coach Joanne Schickerling for their tireless work as coach board members for the last two years. Both coaches have been instrumental in helping to guide the CSA through the pandemic and are eager to stay involved in committee work now that their terms have ended.
