Give squash a chance

Many of the people on campus who I've talked to don't know much about the sport of squash. Do a quick straw poll of all your friends, asking which of them can honestly say that they know how squash is played. I'm going to guess that less than half will respond "yes," and I'm also going to guess that half of those people are fudging their response a little bit. Whether you answer yes or no, here's the million-dollar question: how many of you have actually gone to a match?

Unless you're a relative of a player, you're on the squash team or both, you have probably never made the trek down to the C-floor in Jadwin.

Hey, I wrote the squash beat, and even I didn't make it out to all the games. Okay, so maybe I did, but I've got a soft spot for squash. And you know what? I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm a squash fan, which isn't to say that I don't go to football and basketball games as well. I'm from Kentucky, after all, where one is taught that the Holy Trinity refers to basketball, football and the Baptist church.

Go ahead and roll your eyes, but unlike these more popular sports, football and basketball, Princeton squash is actually successful. Oh yes, I went there.

Princeton has, without a doubt, one of the best men's and women's squash programs in the country. Take, for example, junior Yasser El Halaby. He is just one example of the history of excellence to which Princeton can lay claim. El Halaby is the first collegiate squash player ever to enter the Tournament of Champions, where all the international professional squash players meet to duke it out. At this tournament last year, El Halaby beat the No. 60 and No. 90 professionally-ranked players in the world. Oh, and he lost to the No. 11 player in the world by the narrow scores of 15-12, 15-10 and 15-12.

The other members of the men's team and the women's team are impressive in their own right. The women's team has won more national individual championships (14 of 33) and team championships (11 of 30) than any other school. As a former player, women's head coach Gail Ramsay was the first person in collegiate squash history to win four national individual championships in a row.

Squash is also a family affair. Looking at the men's and women's rosters, you can see several siblings. Senior Franny McKay is the co-captain of the women's team, and her brother Tom is a freshman on the men's. Senior Francie Comey and sophomore Preston Comey are siblings. Junior Hop Wells and freshman Townie Wells are brothers. Senior Greg, sophomore Tim and freshman Scott Callahan are the sons of head coach Bob Callahan, and all three play on the men's team.

Yet several myths persist about squash. Many people think that squash is not as popular as other sports are and is only played in the Northeast. Those people, pardon me, are idiots.

Squash isn't ignored in certain parts of the country (like lacrosse) or even limited to a single continent. Football is played in America, but squash is played all over the world. Some of the best squash players are in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. It's played on every continent but Antarctica. On our own continent, even Canada plays squash.

Like all stereotypes, there is some truth among the myths about squash. In America, the best squash can be found in the Northeast and Ivy League, which is partly the reason for the myth that squash is a stagnant and unpopular sport. Still, there are squash programs all over the United States. From Maine to California, from Georgia to Utah, squash is played in 21 different states.

Also, these same people who naysay and call squash a northeastern elitist sport disregard the sport's relative youth.

The first football game was played here at Princeton in 1869. Squash also has its beginnings at Princeton, but not until 1931. Football has been spreading for nearly a century and a half. Squash has had half that time. Wrestling had its start at Princeton in 1905, yet between the time the women's squash team was introduced to varsity status in 1971 — one of the first three women's sports at Princeton — and now, wrestling has had 170 universities drop it from its programs. Squash, on the other hand, has added 21 new teams in the past three years. At that rate, it will overtake the number of participating D-IA and D–IAA football teams by the decade's end.