Out of the Park
US Jr. Keeps on Slugging
By James Zug, November 2004
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Emily Park has grown. That is the word coursing through the ever-mobile ranks of junior squash. This summer she sprouted up four or five inches. That iconic Lilliput, that tiny, beribboned girl whose racquet was as big as she was, is now five four and a half feet.
Size had been Park’s greatest weakness. She was always a young Mozart of squash, barely able to reach the keys and yet capable of inspiring virtuosity. A New Yorker, she started squash at age eight and earned a ranking high enough to be invited to an elite week at Bob Callahan’s legendary squash camp at Princeton; too young for the dorm, she slept at the Nassau Inn with her mother and infant brother. She quickly began to make sweet music. She won three national Under 13 titles in a row; she won the Under 13 draw at the Scottish Open, becoming the youngest American to win that event; at the 2003 British Junior Open she came in third place in the Under 13s after a controversial 10-9 in the fifth loss. Park has also put together a remarkable string at the Hunter Lott: in the past four years she has consecutively won the Under 13, 15, 17 and, then in November 2003, 19 draws. As of January 1st, she is ranked No. 1 in the US Under 15s and 19s.
Her style has always been proof of her precociousness. She was a shooter, quick release drops from anywhere on the court. Points ended quickly; matches were over in minutes. Being so small, she couldn’t out-slug other girls—or boys, as she often played a bruising king of the court with Chris Gordon and Tommy Wolfe at the Uptown Club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Now, with her newfound height and strength, she can go toe to toe, and the question is how far will she go? She beats up regularly on other men in the Princeton Club’s box league and is unfazed by any number one in the Metropolitan SRA’s women’s league. “The sky has always been the limit,” says Lee Witham, the Englishman who has been the pro at the Princeton Club for the past five years and Park’s coach. “But we’ve got this bright kid, very calm, very talented, very aware, very comfortable in the front of the court, who is now developing an all-court game. Her passion for the game is growing. Pretty soon I don’t see anyone in the junior ranks challenging her.”
Unlike many prodigies, Park doesn’t seem ripe for early burnout. Like any teenage girl, she goes to the movies as often as she has a squash lesson. She is a fine athlete and has played volleyball and basketball for her school. In fact, the only issue might be boredom, and in early round matches she can exhibit the telltale signs—arms dropping in between shots, hands adjusting her hair—of a match not ending soon enough.
Did we say the one stunning thing about this accomplished young woman?
She just turned 13 in October.
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