Squash Magazine: Tim Wyant: What Will the Future Hold?

What Will the Future Hold? By Tim Wyant, World No. 116

That the United States won't produce a world championship team in the near future is not in question. The US men finished a dismal 19th at last October's World Championships, and our women finished 18th the year before. As long as squash remains a largely private club sport in America and the junior game continues to be oriented around admission into college, we will not be able compete with the likes of Australia and England. But can the US soon break into the second-tier of squash countries that are ranked between nine and16 in the world? Definitely. And here's why. Nowhere in the world is the game experiencing more positive momentum than in America. The US hosts more PSA and WISPA tournaments than any country, and with Dave McNeely, Brian Mathias, Beau River, Preston Quick, Jason Jewell and myself on the men's tour, we currently have more full-time American playing pros than ever before in the international game. Although squash's growth here has been stagnant in recent years largely due to the transition from hardball to softball, its popularity has not declined, which has been the case in a number of prominent squash countries, including Australia and England. According to the World Squash Federation, the US is home to more courts than all but a handful of countries, and while courts elsewhere are being turned into exercise rooms, we are building new ones. With its growing junior ranks and lucrative coaching positions, the US has become the choice destination for teaching pros from around the world. The number of competitive juniors has doubled in the past six years alone, amounting to more than 1,500 kids. Last month's US Junior Open, known as the Junior Olympics, is a powerful symbol of how far we have come: with 450 entrants—118 of whom came from abroad—it surpassed the prestigious British Junior Open as the world's largest junior tournament. Many of our juniors are gaining experience abroad as well. Ten years ago, 14 year-old Dave McNeely began training regularly in England and competing in the British and Scottish Junior Opens. It seems he started a trend. Now dozens of American juniors play in those and other international tournaments each year, and many more spend their summers training in such places as the UK, Australia, Holland and South Africa. These developments at the junior level have translated into results. Michelle Quibell, the first American to win a British Open title, led the junior women's team to a best-ever fourth place finish at last year's World Team Championships. At the S.L. Green Men's Nationals in March, 17-year-old Julian Illingworth surprised everyone by finishing fifth. The best U17 junior is 15-year-old Chris Gordon, who is originally from New York City but now lives in Haragate, England. Were he a citizen there, he would rank as one of the best juniors in the UK. Increased funding for the country's elite players also bodes well for the future. When squash became a Pan American sport in 1997, the USSRA began receiving $100,000 in funding annually from the USOC. In addition, Paul Assaiante and Richard Millman have separately secured funding from individuals and corporations, most notably Lehman Brothers. Still more heartening is the role that, ironically, college squash may play in the future development of our elite players. Until now, America's college focus has actually limited our potential to become a world-class squash country. Many parents introduce their children to squash with the idea that, years later, it might help their chances in the college admissions process. As a result, instead of shooting for the sky on the world squash stage, many American kids strive to become just good enough to catch the attention of college coaches. While getting into the world top 10 is the measure of success for England's top juniors, becoming a college All-American is the standard of excellence for our best young players. Not the same thing. Moreover, the college years are crucial ones for a squash player's development, and the level of intensity in college programs does not compare to the kind of work that the world's best players typically put themselves through in their late-teens and early-20s. Young pros spend that period building a base of fitness and gaining international experience. Four years of college squash, they say, is like one year on the tour. Motivated by that thinking, Mark Talbott skipped college and went straight to the pros. He became the world's best hardball professional. But the level of play in college has risen dramatically in recent years, mostly due to the influx of foreign players. Canadians and Indians have long been a part of college squash teams, but intercollegiate players now hail from more than two dozen countries. According to this year's pre-season rankings, 15 of the top 20 collegiate men are from abroad, and there is not an American in the top five. College squash will never be as good of a training ground as the tour, but as more foreign players come to the US to study, American collegiate players will be better able to improve at a pace more on par with their counterparts on the tour. Provided these positive trends continue, and that more and more of our many talented juniors choose to play the tour after graduating from college, we as a country should be poised to comfortably hold a spot in the world's top 16. Then we can begin thinking about that world championship team.