Success and champions – no two words can better describe the weekend StreetSquash had at SEA Team Nationals.
Both the High School Boys A and High School Boys B teams went undefeated in Philadelphia taking home first place prizes in their respective divisions. Meanwhile, the Girls A team lost just one of four matches the entire weekend.
It should be noted that an all-female coaching staff led the teams to victory. It was Manager of Squash Katiria Sanchez and Assistant Squash Pro Joanne Schickerling who helped prepare students for the weekend and who were on-hand at the Specter Center in Philadelphia during the entire tournament.
“I’m so proud of our two female coaches for leading us to a national championship,” Squash Director Simba Muhwati said. “But more importantly they run our high school and middle school programs and it’s a bit of an anomaly in squash that you have female coaches heading up certain parts of programming. It’s not lost on us that they’re there.”
For some of the players on hand, the experience was completely new to them.
“A lot of the kids that went had never played on a glass court,” Katiria said. “Julian (HS Boys B team) played on the glass for the first time and played amazing. Evan (HS Boys B Team), his first time on the glass, also played amazing and won his match.”
“David (HS Boys B Team) set a goal for himself to play a match on the glass court and win so we’re very happy that he was able to accomplish that,” Katiria added.
The Boys A team got off to a hot start with all five players winning their matches against Rally Portland on Friday evening. An early morning Saturday didn’t stop the onslaught. Again, StreetSquash succeeded in all five matches against MetroSquash, allowing the team to advance to the semifinals just a couple of hours later. Showing no signs of fatigue, Boys A again had a clean sweep this time against SquashSmarts.
In the tournament finale, StreetSquash played Mission Squash, the SEA program located in Houston. This was more of a battle. But Thomas, Alassane, and Mohamed all had sweeps of their opponents securing the championship for StreetSquash.
“The final was definitely the most challenging match,” Katiria said. “We were able to secure the 3-0 win early so that definitely took pressure off those last two players going in which is the place you always want to be when you go to these events.”
Boys B started the weekend on fire as well with all five StreetSquashers beating their counterparts from SquashBusters Boston 2. A 4-1 win against Urban Squash Cleveland in the next round, pitted StreetSquash against SquashBusters Boston 1 in the semifinals. Another 4-1 victory propelled Boys B into the finals against Cincinnati Squash Academy. But Cincinnati was also no match as StreetSquash again took a 4-1 win to earn the championship title.
“The Boys B team definitely held their own,” Katiria said. “They weren’t the one seed in their division so going in we knew we’d have to put some work in.”
The Girls began with strong Friday vibes as well starting the weekend with a 3-2 win over Squash Haven 2. But early Saturday morning, the girls fell in a very tough battle to CitySquash 2, three games to two, pushing them into the consolation bracket. But after that, the girls found their stride again. They defeated SquashBusters Boston later that same afternoon 5-0. Sunday morning StreetSquash beat SquashBusters Providence 4-1 earning their way to the consolation bracket finals a few hours later. A 3-2 victory over SquashSmarts put StreetSquash atop the consolation bracket.
“Great competitors,” Katiria said of the SquashSmarts girls. “Great sportsmanship from both teams, and we were able to secure the victory 3-2.”
With each team starting the tournament with wins on day one, spirits were high back at the hotel on Friday night.
“Everybody was in good spirits going into the evening,” Katiria said. “The kids were watching their recorded matches on YouTube and writing down notes.”
Throughout the rest of the weekend, Katiria said the support amongst the StreetSquashers was unlike anything she’s seen at prior ‘Teams’ events.
“They were all there, they were present,” Katiria said. “They were taking pictures, filling up each other’s water bottles between games.”
Between the success on the court, and the behavior and support off the court, it was an extremely successful weekend for StreetSquash and its students.
“The students just showed up so proud and ready to go and as coaches that’s what we instill in them every day when they’re with us,” Katiria said.
See US Squash’s coverage of this story here.
