US Women’s Team Trials
Squad Selected, But Not Without Speculation and “What-Ifs?”
By Amy Boytz
All photos by Squash Magazine
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Concluding an intense mid-June weekend of matches (five for each woman in a three-day space), the US Women’s Team has been selected. The top four women (below) will be asked to represent the US in Quito, Ecuador, for the 2002 Pan American Federation Squash Championships (August 24-September 1) and for the 2002 Women's World Team Championships (October 13-19) in Odense, Denmark.
1. Shabana Khan
2. Latasha Khan
3. Julia Beaver
4. Meredeth Quick
5. Ivy Pochoda
6. Louisa Hall
7. Margaret Elias
8. Hope Prockop
Latasha Khan
Final team selection and ranking was based on the following pre-set formula: each player was ranked according to a combination of 55% season-ranking plus 45% team-trials rankings. Though originally designed to incorporate three required Selection Events plus the US Nationals, the Nationals ended up counting as virtually the entire season due to the lack of head-to-head match results of the candidates. “We have such a diverse group of candidates and large list of selection events to accommodate our diverse group, that the Nationals is almost the only tournament that produces head-to-head results,” explained Brenda Grossnickle, USSRA Women’s Committee Chair.
Julia Beaver (L) and Ivy Pochoda
This year, an exception was made for Julia Beaver, who was forced out of competition all season due to medical reasons. In January, Beaver requested that she be exempted from the selection criteria due to the fact that she was unable to play any of the requisite regular-season tournaments. After submitting a doctor’s note explaining her absence (and estimated time of when she would return to the court) to the USSRA Women’s Committee, they presented their recommendation of approval to the USSRA Executive Committee. (Ed. Note: Despite Julia Beaver’s injury/illness being undisclosed, it has been characterized and accepted as a “grave illness.”)
Considering an exemption for Beaver was not an easy process for the Women’s Committee, especially since it has been criticized in the past for either not having any selection criteria, or having criteria but not sticking to it. “We had lots of discussions about it. It did not come down to a sympathy thing. It came down to [the fact that] she’s a top athlete, and injuries, illnesses do happen,” said Grossnickle.
Per the Women’s Committee recommendation, Beaver would be invited to the trials contingent upon the results of a special playoff: Beaver would have to beat the eighth-ranked player at the end of the season (Dana Betts). Beaver did just this in a playoff held the weekend prior to trials at the Harvard Club of New York. Also, as part of the exemption, Beaver’s trials results would count as 100% of her season ranking. “To be honest, having 100% of your ranking from one weekend is not ideal in any sense,” explained Beaver. “It put a lot more pressure on me than, say, people who had good rankings beforehand and who came in with 55% with a high ranking.” On the other hand, Ivy Pochoda had concerns about the 55/45 formula in the first place: “The Nationals are weighted more than the trials for everyone. Why didn’t they weight the trials more than the Nationals, considering that’s the bigger event…and considering it’s weighting for one person at 100%? The trials are definitely the ones that you’re nervous for.”
Meredeth Quick
After the rounds of pool play at the trials, the women squared off for places 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8. On Sunday morning, Pochoda and Beaver were to play off for places 3/4. Simultaneously on the court next to Pochoda and Beaver, Meredeth Quick and Louisa Hall were playing for places 5/6; Quick won that match. At that point, regardless of the outcome of the Pochoda/Beaver match, Quick’s final team ranking would be fourth—she was assured a spot on the team. Therefore, the winner out of Pochoda/Beaver would place third, and the loser fifth, becoming first alternate for the team. Beaver, in five games, won the match.
In any competitive event, the runner-up typically feels the brunt of what could have been. In this case, it was Pochoda who came in just shy of a guaranteed spot on the team. However, despite not finishing in the top four, there remains a chance that Pochoda could represent the US in competition if one of the top four women cannot attend one or both of the upcoming championships.
“We try to be as fair as we can be and produce the best team that we can produce. But we can’t do one at the expense of the other…We can’t hand pick people. People have to prove it on the court that they are [deserving of] this final standing,” Grossnickle said.
Shabana Khan
Though the matches are long over, the chatter surrounding this year’s US Women’s Team Trials has hardly ceased. Still today, curious fans and players continue to mull over the issues on such online chatrooms as the USSRA’s “SqTalk WWWBoard.”
One thread of discussion amid the US squash community questions how the exemption for Beaver was proposed to the national team candidates. Twenty percent of the Women’s Committee (and all USSRA committees) must be comprised Active Athletes, who represent the athletes. The Women’s Committee admits they did not ask the individual athletes for their opinions on the matter; rather, the committee discussed and voted on the issue with the participation of the Active Athlete (in this case, Margaret Elias)—the same procedure followed in all similar circumstances.
Reportedly, the committee voted unanimously to allow Beaver to play off against the eight-ranked woman at the end of the season, and therefore be a part of the team trials. “Julia's dedication to the sport and her amazing ability to compete (which I have personally been witness to having spent many years of junior and collegiate squash playing against her and watching her compete), along with the unfortunate circumstances, helped persuade me that the exception was fair,” said Elias.
The Women’s Committee states that no formal complaints were filed by any of the players prior to the trials week. “Everybody had the opportunity to make the team. Julia was an exception in that these scenarios do come up. Every year something—whether the dates of the tournament or the players having injuries or exceptional circumstances—happens…We want the fairest trials that we can get. That’s part of our purpose,” Grossnickle said.
However, Pochoda said she felt as though any formal complaints would not have made a difference. “Though I saw the flaw in the system immediately—I thought that it was not a fair system to Julia or to any of us—there’s no point in complaining because these people are very inflexible,” Pochoda said. “The only fair thing to do is, if there’s an exception made for one person, then everyone’s criteria has to change,” Pochoda said.
For Beaver, the controversy that is now swirling around her name comes as quite a shock. “Honestly, I’m kind of upset about the reaction some people are having,” Beaver said. “Because there’s a precedent in almost every sport, I think, to make exceptions for elite athletes in extraneous circumstances. I didn’t really anticipate this at all. There was certainly no tension among the players over the weekend, at least not that I noticed.”
Click for larger view
Next year, according to members of the Women’s Committee, the selection criteria for the US women’s team may be altered. One suggestion is to add satellite events throughout the season to generate more head-to-head results between the candidates. However, there will likely remain some percentage split of season tournaments and trials—intrinsically, such a combination results in a showcase of different scenarios necessary to judge players’ abilities. “We need year round results to prove that a player is committed and reliable. We need trials and Nationals to show that a player is good under mental and physical pressure,” said Elias.
Please stay tuned to www.squashmagazine.com for updates on the women’s team as well as the US Men’s Team trials, which take place at the end of June 2002.
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