The College Squash Association (CSA) has announced the seven student-athletes who will serve as members of the organization’s revamped Player Advisory Committee (PAC) for the 2019-2020 season.

The committee will communicate directly with the CSA Executive Director & League Commissioner, providing a valuable player perspective on CSA’s new initiatives and other issues that face CSA teams. The CSA Board of Directors may also call upon the PAC to offer direct feedback on specific questions stemming from board discussions. After each season, the committee will produce a report containing feedback on the season and recommendations for future consideration.

After originally selecting three student-athletes per graduation year, the CSA increased the committee membership to four players per year this season. The current PAC has three women and four men representing a cross-section of conferences and ranking positions. These student-athletes are asked to provide a voice for the college player community and will be expected to collaborate with their peers, including both teammates and opponents. PAC members serve terms of two academic years, from the fall of their junior year through their college graduation.

The 2019-2020 Player Advisory Committee members are:

Class of 2020

Graham Bonnell, Bates College

Timmy Brownell, Harvard University

Gabby Fraser, William Smith College

Class of 2021

Mohammad Alterki, George Washington University

Molly Carabatsos, Connecticut College

Jack Lentz, U.S. Naval Academy

Emme Leonard, Princeton University

With many college squash teams now back on court for official practices, the CSA offers a preview of the road to the CSA Championships, highlighting many key matches along the way.

The Harvard men’s and women’s teams will both look to defend their team titles at the CSA Championships in late February. Both teams start their championship defenses late in the fall semester: the Crimson men welcome local foe MIT on Nov. 20, while the women open both their season and Ivy League play at Dartmouth on Dec. 3.

The clash of the titans, the rematches between defending champions Harvard and runners-up Trinity, is a midweek match-up this season taking place on Wednesday, Feb. 5 in Hartford, CT. All four teams will be eager to make a statement with the team championships scheduled for only a few weeks after those matches.

The season kicks off in earnest next weekend, but one match between two of the CSA’s newest teams has already taken place to open the campaign. Debutants University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University played the first of hopefully many local rivalry matches in the Steel City, with CMU clinching the 6-3 victory.

Other local rivalries are the hallmark of the opening weekend of play, headlined by fast-rising second-year varsity men’s program Chatham University taking on well-organized club programs Denison University and Bucknell University and the Wellesley College women welcoming neighbor Northeastern University.

The first all-varsity match-up of the 2019-2020 season should be an exciting one: Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference competitors University of Virginia and Franklin & Marshall College will square off in Charlottesville. While the Virginia women swept both matches against the Diplomats last season, the UVA men squeezed out three separate 5-4 victories during the second half of last year.

The weekend of November 15-17 marks the first opportunity for the NESCAC teams to compete, and the increased activity on the schedule that weekend points to this critical point in the season. Intriguing Friday evening matches start off the weekend right. The Maine rivalry between Bates and Bowdoin will start a new chapter with first-time head coaches Reinhold Hergeth and Theo Woodward taking the reins of those programs, respectively. Additionally, two men’s teams with eyes on a Top-8 spot – George Washington University and University of Virginia – will face off in primetime in Washington, DC.

After at least 53 total matches between the 15^th and 17^th, CSA squads compete in at least 59 matches the following weekend on Nov. 22-24. Three of those matches involve the Stanford University women, who finished a program-best 3^rd in the country in 2019, making their first foray to the east coast. Virginia continues its brutal early season schedule, taking on heavyweights Princeton, Yale, and Trinity on consecutive days. Connecticut will be a hotbed of college squash that weekend, with Yale and Wesleyan hosting multiple neutral site contests along with their own matches.

As the calendar turns to December, Ivy League play opens with the aforementioned Harvard-Dartmouth match-up, as well as contests between the Yale and Brown teams. The final weekend of matches before finals and the holiday break includes two rematches from last year’s CSA Men’s Team National Championships. In a rematch of the Summers Division Championship, MIT welcomes Brown to Cambridge, while the 3^rd– and 4^th-place teams from last season, Penn and Rochester meet in Philadelphia.

The beginning of 2020 brings a litany of matches while teams are on winter break.  Williams College kicks things off with matches on back-to-back days against Dartmouth and Middlebury. Mark your calendars for January 11 and 12 when many teams are back in action after the new year.  This first full weekend of Ivy League play could have major implications for the top of the rankings with Harvard scheduled to host Penn and Princeton. All four visiting teams will likely push the defending champions, especially considering Penn and Princeton’s talent this season and Harvard having played so few matches up to that point.

2019 men’s runner-up Trinity has a tough five-day three-match stretch during the following week when they host Rochester and Penn with a trip to Columbia sandwiched in between. The Trinity women, also national finalists last season, will tackle the challenging Columbia-Penn tandem over a three-day period. The weekend of January 17-19 also sees Fordham play host to some budding rivalries and important mid-rankings clashes, when Connecticut College, Haverford, and Hamilton visit the Bronx.

The following week of the schedule is regional rivalry week, capped off by the annual Pioneer Valley Invitational in northwest Massachusetts. Amherst and Mount Holyoke will host a bevy of teams, many of whom will play important rankings-adjacent matches against geographically diverse opponents. The Yale women face a tough test this week, albeit with all matches at home, when they face Trinity, Stanford, and George Washington over a five-day period.

The last full weekend of regular season squash occurs as February arrives, with several critical matches that will affect teams’ overall rankings. This includes rematches of both B Division finals from last season. The Cornell and Dartmouth women rekindle their rivalry in Ithaca on Feb. 1 with possible Top-8 seeding on the line. On Sunday, Feb. 2, the 2019 Hoehn Cup rematch of Drexel and George Washington could have an impact on which team makes the jump to the Potter Division later in the month.

The weekend of February 7-9 marks the beginning of championship play for some CSA teams. The Liberty League Championships, Mid-Atlantic Squash Championships, and NESCAC Women’s Championships all take place on that weekend.  The final full weekend of Ivy League play is scheduled then too.

The following weekend, February 14-16, features the NESCAC Men’s Championships and the informal Centennial Conference round-robin competition between Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Haverford, and Johns Hopkins. Not to be outdone, the Princeton and Trinity women meet on Feb. 15 in Princeton for a blockbuster rematch of last year’s Howe Cup semifinal. Depending on season results and final rankings, these two teams could meet again only a week later at the CSA Women’s Team National Championships at Yale.

The full details of the 2020 CSA Championships are as follows:

• CSA Women’s Team National Championships: February 21-23, 2020 in New Haven, CT
• CSA Men’s Team National Championships: February 28-March 1, 2020 in Boston, MA
• CSA Individual National Championships: March 6-8, 2020 in Philadelphia, PA hosted by University of Pennsylvania

For a full listing of scheduled matches and results throughout the season, please bookmark the following links: Men and Women.

In an official release on Monday, Bates College named Reinhold Hergeth to the position of Head Men’s and Women’s Squash Coach. Hergeth comes to Bates from Chelsea Piers in Connecticut, where he has worked as a top club professional since graduating from Trinity College in 2013.

A native of Bloemfontein, South Africa, Hergeth was a core contributor to four years of great success at Trinity, including three National Championships. Hergeth played No. 1 and was a senior co-captain on the 2013 championship team.

While at Chelsea Piers, Hergeth had a wide variety of responsibilities, including coaching club members of all abilities, managing the junior program, and overseeing tournament planning and execution at the club. He has also been the head varsity coach at New Canaan High School for the past five years.

Hergeth takes the helm of Bates Squash after the previous head coach, Pat Cosquer, took on the same role at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.  The Bates women lost four top-nine players to graduation in 2019, but they add four incoming student-athletes to the group led by three-time All-NESCAC selection Luca Polgar. The men’s team will aim for their 19th straight winning season with seven starters returning to be joined by three recruits.

For more details on Hergeth’s hire to lead Bates Squash, you can view the formal press release here.

The College Squash Association has announced the host locations for the 2020 CSA championship events. The CSA Championships will take place on three consecutive weekends in late February and early March.

The first of the three tournaments is the CSA Women’s Team National Championships on February 21-23, 2020, which will be held in New Haven, Connecticut. This championship event, often referred to by its original name, the Howe Cup, returns to New Haven for the first time since 2016. Yale University, the original hosts of the Howe Cup, will be the primary host venue, with Choate Rosemary Hall or Hopkins School being possible secondary locations.

The CSA Men’s Team National Championships, scheduled for February 28 through March 1, 2020, will be staged in Boston, Massachusetts. Harvard University, the primary venue for the 2020 championships, last hosted the men’s teams in 2017. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Belmont Hill School are the likely secondary locations for this event.

In an effort to highlight the newest squash facility among CSA member schools, the CSA Individual National Championships will head to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania. The 12 new Martin and Julie Franklin Squash Courts at the Penn Squash Center will play host for the final event of the season on March 6-8, 2020. The last time a CSA championship event visited Philadelphia was in 2014 when Drexel University hosted the Individual Championships.

More information about the CSA Championships will be posted throughout the season on this page, where fans can also view results and video from the 2019 championships. Future championship dates will also be posted on that page when they become available.

The 2019 U.S. Intercollegiate Squash Doubles Championships will be held alongside the FS Investments U.S. Open for the ninth year in Philadelphia, October 4-6.  The Arlen Spector Pennsylvania JCT will also be hosted the same weekend.

There is no entry fee, and all participants receive free General Admission tickets to the U.S. Open on October 5-6. Players must compete with a partner from the same school. Intercollegiate doubles champions receive automatic free entry into the 2020 National Doubles in Twin Cities, Minnesota, March 5-8, 2020.

This will be the fortieth edition of the tournament, the world’s only annual collegiate doubles event, which was first played in 1942. The tournament will be presented again by the U.S. Jesters Club.

Last year, with only a men’s division in action, the U.S. Naval Academy maintained their doubles dominance with Senen Ubina and Michael Kacergis claiming a fifth title in six years for Navy after overcoming fellow Midshipman Jonathan Lentz and James Kjorlien in the final. The championship was Ubina’s third of his career and his second with a partner named Kacergis. Younger brother Michael earned his first intercollegiate doubles title, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Billy.  Unfortunately, the women’s and mixed divisions did not receive enough entries to stage those competitions last season.

Entry is now available for men’s, women’s and mixed divisions on the 2019 Intercollegiate Doubles tournament page.

The Hobart and William Smith Colleges athletics departments announced on Tuesday that Pat Cosquer, the Head Squash Coach at Bates College for the last 11 years, has been hired to the same position for the two squash programs.

Cosquer will move into a newly-created role at the coordinated colleges, which was sparked by the retirement of William Smith squash and tennis coach, Chip Fishback. He will lead the separate Heron and Statesmen squads, while the former Hobart head squash and tennis coach, Tim Riskie, will coach the tennis teams for both schools.

During his successful stint at his alma mater, Bates, Cosquer amassed an overall team record of 309-200 and four divisional championships between his two programs. His student-athletes compiled an impressive list of accolades, headlined by two-time CSA Individual National Champion Ahmed Abdel Khalek.

After graduating from Bates, Cosquer gained coaching experience at various levels of the game. With college club squash (Northwestern), high school (Portsmouth Abbey), private club (Newport Squash Club), and urban squash (StreetSquash) experience, Cosquer will bring a diverse skillset to upstate New York.

Cosquer will look to return William Smith to Walker Cup (C Division) competition after several years of success in the Epps (D) Division. Hobart seeks their first division crown since 2012.

For more information about Cosquer’s appointment, please view the formal press release here.

Colby College rising sophomore Tyler Burt has overcome uniquely challenging odds to play college squash. Here is his story:

This past winter, I played my first collegiate season as a member of the Colby College men’s squash team. And although I loved playing for the team like many other players, my journey to collegiate athletics has not been ordinary.

It is possible that I have just become the first stroke survivor to compete in college squash competition.

In utero, prior to my birth on November 24, 1998, I suffered an acute ischemic stroke. An “acute” ischemic stroke is when a part of the brain dies due to lack of oxygen, often resulting in severe disability for survivors. It is suspected that a singular blood vessel in my brain collapsed — causing paralysis on the right side of my body. I have grown up my entire life with this disability.

Physical and occupational therapy have had a permanent place in my life since I was six months old. It has been challenging. The grit and perseverance I have developed through my therapy now carries over to the squash court.

I discovered squash in the fourth grade, because it was one of the only sports I could play without using my right hand. I started by taking lessons at Berwyn Squash and Fitness, but transferred over to the Scozzie Squash Academy at Fairmount Athletic Club. While attending the Haverford School, I was a four-year varsity squash player. I have been playing in US Squash-sanctioned tournaments since 2011, and have been playing squash since 2008.

I cannot thank Paul Frank and his team from Scozzie enough for helping me achieve my dream of playing a collegiate sport. They continuously pushed me to be the best player that I could be, and they have treated me and the rest of their players as if we were family.

My disability is something that I have been grappling with my entire life. To this day, my right side has been affected enormously. The muscles on my right side are weaker, most of the nerves are dead, and I cannot individually move my fingers on my right hand. I walk with a slight gait differential, and need to constantly work on my cardio, strength, and stretching.

But I have tried to never let that stop me.  I want to use my story to show others that obstacles can be overcome and that limitations do not exist if you have an unrelenting mindset.

After graduating from the Haverford School, I was lucky enough to get recruited by Colby College and have spent this past year as a member of their varsity men’s team. For me, the transition to collegiate athletics was a difficult one, especially with my disability. It was also one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Playing collegiate squash has been an incredible experience for me. Getting to know and bonding with my teammates, as well as my coach, Chris Abplanalp, has been unbelievable. They immediately accepted me as one of their own and do not view me any differently than they see themselves, despite the fact that I have a disability.

Throughout our matches this year, I have found that the level of competition rose significantly from juniors to college. There are more international players, more matches in a season, and every single player hates to lose. I am grateful for the support of my teammates through our difficult matches and the many long weekends we spent on the road.

As I prepare for my sophomore year, I cannot wait for the start of a new school year as well as a new squash season. With the addition of our new state-of-the-art facility opening in 2020, Colby will be raising the standard of competitive play not only for our team, but also for every other team in Maine. I cannot wait to see what the future holds.

Tyler Burt is entering his second year at Colby College where he will compete again on the men’s varsity squash team. Tyler’s autobiography will be published later this month.

The 2019 Pan American Games kicked off in Lima, Peru last week with the squash events starting on Thursday, July 25. 60 athletes representing 13 countries began the competition in seven different events.

A closer look at the entrants list, however, reveals that a formidable group of former and current College Squash Association (CSA) competitors will be making their mark during the quadrennial games. Almost a quarter of the squash athletes – 14 total – plied their trade in CSA competitions, including five of the six members of Team USA.

Pan American Games competitors Amanda (left) and Sabrina Sobhy (right) during their Harvard playing days (photos: Michael T. Bello)

Leading the way already is the highest ranked female in competition: American and Harvard alumna Amanda Sobhy. She captured individual gold over Team USA teammate Olivia Blatchford Clyne, before teaming with sister and more recent Harvard graduate, Sabrina.

Matching Amanda’s position on the top of the medal stand were two men’s CSA alums who teamed up for gold in the men’s doubles competition. Former Ivy League competitors and 2013 Skillman Award co-winners Todd Harrity (Princeton) and Chris Hanson (Dartmouth) recovered from a Game 1 loss in the final to win the doubles gold medal.

Team USA’s Todd Harrity (left, Princeton) and Chris Hanson (center, Dartmouth) faced off numerous times in college, while Andrew Douglas (right, Penn) has two more seasons of CSA competition (photos: Michael T. Bello)

The final member of Team USA’s squash contingent is University of Pennsylvania’s talented rising junior Andrew Douglas. The 2019 CSA Individual Championships semifinalist teamed up with Blatchford Clyne in the new mixed doubles competition, adding a bronze medal to the growing American medal haul.

With both the men’s and the women’s team competitions now underway, the three-person American teams will aim for some additional hardware. Team qualifying occurred on Sunday and Monday with the final draws playing out today and Wednesday.

Standing in their way, however, could be some former competitors from their college days. Nine additional competitors from six other countries formerly played college squash. Listed alphabetically with their home countries and colleges shown, they are: Chris Binnie (Jamaica; Trinity College), Noah Browne (Bermuda; Amherst College), Bruce Burrowes (Jamaica; University of Western Ontario), Mary Fung-A-Fat (Guyana; Drexel University), Danielle Letourneau (Canada; Cornell University), Catalina Pelaez (Colombia; Trinity College), Rodrigo Porras (El Salvador; University of Rochester), Nick Sachvie (Canada; Cornell University), Juan Camilo Vargas (Colombia; Trinity College).

The College Squash Association wishes all of the athletes good luck as the competition comes to a close this week!

Anderson Good, formerly the men’s and women’s assistant squash coach at George Washington University, was named Head Coach of the GW squash program late last week.

After four seasons in the assistant role, Good will move into the head position recently vacated by the retirement of legendary coach Wendy Lawrence. Coming off a successful season with several firsts for both the men’s and women’s programs, Good has a solid foundation on which to build his own tenure.

With Good assisting in leadership, the GW men’s program has earned back-to-back Hoehn Cup (B Division) Championships, with two members of the team earning CSA All-America selections last season. The women’s program reached their highest program ranking of 14 in 2017-2018, and two-time CSA All-American Zoe Foo Yuk Han reached the highest end-of-season individual ranking in program history at No. 12 this past year.

Known for building relationships with his players and fellow coaches, Good has been the primary originator of the newly established Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference (MASC). MASC staged its first championship event in 2018-2019 and have a total of 12 member teams competing during the 2019-2020 inaugural season.

For more information about Good’s hire at GW, please view the formal press release here.