Despite the fact that fewer than half of the intramural squash team had experience in squash, the team was able to greatly improve their skills. “We had several kids who had never played squash before, and some really made a lot of improvement,” said Assistant Coach Samantha Cassidy,“mostly in their serving, because serving is a skill that really takes a lot of practice, it takes a lot of time and effort to really get used to that serving motion and using those muscles.”
Many of the players on the intramural team enjoyed playing squash. “I think it was quite fun for the time I was there,” said seventh-grader Tobias Van Wilgen. “I felt pretty good about it, it was a great experience. I can’t say that I was very good at squash, but I definitely learned some new skills,” said eighth-grader Eve Repp.
Even though the team had no matches against other schools during the season, a few of the team’s stronger players played with the A squash team. “We had several players play with the competitive team,” said Coach Cassidy, “I think we had four or five players who competed, which is really nice.” However, some of the intramural team’s players are unsure of whether they will continue squash. “I don’t know if squash is something that I’d pursue because it was something new to try. I’m not sure if it’s been fit for me,” said Repp.
Van Wilgen plans to continue squash next year. “I plan to do squash again next year in the winter. I don’t plan on going to a team or anything just because I don’t have any time for that outside of school. But, otherwise, I’ll definitely be doing squash again next year,” said Van Wilgen. Coach Cassidy says that some of the intramural players could move to the A team next year. “I think that there’s definitely a possibility that some of our intramural players will make the competitive team,” she said,“We’ll have to see when people try out next year and hopefully some of them will get some extra practice at the courts between now and next season.”
Coach Cassidy hopes to coach squash again next year, and to persuade more girls to play squash. “We did have a fair amount of girls on the intramural team, which was great. But we did not have any girls on the competitive team. So, I’m hoping that I can encourage some of the girls in our middle school to try out squash, and then maybe gradually move up to the competitive team because then it would be really great for us to have a co ed squash team,” she said.
