Texas JCT - Tiger Reportage!

Houston, Texas was home to the final JCT of the 2024/25 season.  

HEADLINES

13 Squash Tigers (and several soon to be Philly Tigers) made the trek south to test their skills against the best of the best and performed outstandingly well.  Congratulations in particular to Yidrew on his final, Lily on her 3rd place and Jack on his quarter.  A special shout out to Arman, making his JCT debut in the BU19!  It seems we have a debut Tiger in almost every JCT of late - with Evan making his first BU13 in Philly last month - which is an exceptionally enjoyable trend!  Congratulations also to all the competitors from Tigers, a testament to the kids’ hard work and the parents’ commitment to facilitating their development - what a great community we have here in NJ.  Read on via link in bio!

WHAT BACKGROUND SHOULD YOU KNOW…

A little background on Houston for those of you new to the game.  Houston is one of the fastest growing squash communities in the country and one would not have discussed squash in Texas a handful of years ago; it didn’t much exist.  Kudos to Houston Squash Club who have only been in existence since 2021 and host a large series of PSA events, junior tournaments, and an excellent junior program.  They hosted last summer's World Junior Championships and are a great sign of the growth of the sport in the United States and what can be accomplished with enthusiasm and hard work.

Additionally I should remind everyone that JCT’s are the highest caliber events outside of the National Championships.  This JCT was the fifth of five on the US Squash calendar, after we visited everywhere from California to Virginia to Texas to Pennsylvania and Connecticut!  The culmination of the season is undoubtedly the National Championships coming up in Philly in March, however the JCT’s are the next highest prestige event, both in terms of elite player participation and ranking importance.

WHAT DID IT LOOK LIKE

If you haven’t caught up with our social media, our Insta Story gives a great feel for the event. We also put some of our photos, some taken by the coaches, some from the kids themselves, onto our Facebook page if you’d like to check that out! (many, many photo creds to Edward and much gratitude to Lily who are both responsible for much of the photodump!)

THE BREAKDOWN

Our Tiger Standout for the second straight event was Yidrew who made his first ever final in the BU15!  Who would have ever thought when he joined the program in September of 2022… fresh from a 6th place in the Berwyn Silver, that he would be making a JCT final a couple of seasons later!  Many congratulations to a real coach's favorite!  Also ahead of the game was Miss Lily, rebounding from her disappointment in the Philly JCT she came a strong 3rd and with a couple of different bounces of the ball may have well emerged with the title.  Final amongst the top 8 of our crew was Coach Elriani’s (from our soon to open Philly club) son Jack who made the quarters of the BU19 before succumbing to illness.  Disappointing for Jack, as he handily won the Philly JCT last month, but keeping in mind he is playing up and looking a million dollars, he’ll rebound quickly. 

The U13’s as they often are were effortful and not without their share of excitement.  They saw Evan in his down year have some success in only his second JCT at this age group.  Yiden, also in his down year, continued to threaten those above him and came in 17th and Mimi fought her way in the consolation to her 13-16.  All three will have some contributions to make in the Gold Nationals next month!

The GU15 saw Madeleine in 11-12, the BU17 saw Eric, encumbered by illness in 13-16, with Shrikar unfortunately unable to complete the event due to injury.  Bigger days ahead for all three!

The U19’s saw a lot of action… a million miles run, nicks hit and sweat on the court as our elite crew left it all out there!  Special shout out to Arman, who made memories in his first BU19 JCT - we’ll miss this guy when he goes off to Middlebury next season.  With Parth injured, it was left to Colten and Alex to push on.  Colten finished 11-12, a trifle down from his quarter in Philly, but still elite and it was great to have Alex back to health after some recent bad luck finishing 13-16.  Last, but not least was Reghan with a 13-16 finish after a narrow loss in the second round.  Five weeks and Miss will be ready for a shot at the National U17 title… sure she can’t wait!

LOOKING AHEAD

This coming weekend we will see the High School Nationals in Philly, good luck to our more senior players as they represent their schools proudly.  March brings the Gold, Silver and Bronze Nationals - and I would heartily encourage everyone to enter their appropriate Nationals and compete hard.  It is a tremendous high point to the season, gives invaluable experience and has served to be an inspiration to many over past seasons.  No better way of judging where you are in your squash journey than a definitive experience in a Nationals.

FINALLY

A crucial time of year for many reasons.  If you’d like to arrange to sit down and discuss planning for the short or long term all the coaches have put aside some time in their coaching evenings - so please reach out and we’ll put a day and time in the books with your child’s coach/mentor.

P.S.

Special shout out to one of our OG's, who hasn't had the best of injury luck... Tyler won the Woodberry Junior Silver in Virginia in fine style... congrats, bigger things ahead!

See everyone at training…

Quick hits!

• Last weekend was a busy one, if you missed the report you can find it here; it was great to see the kids rewarded for hard work.

• Thank you so much to those families that responded to Coach Claire’s Squash Tigers Survey - you can expect some “feedback on your feedback”!

• We have a little more than a dozen Tigers going to Texas for this coming weekend's JCT accompanied by three of our coaches.  Good luck to that group and for those at home, please remember that training always runs and the schedule is unchanged.

• With Middle School Squash winding down, a reminder that we offer a FREE TRIAL to new players who may wish to experience a Squash Tiger Squad and push to that next level of achievement.  If your child has school squash buddies who might be interested, please feel free to pass on the link!

• Finally... Summer Plans are being finalized at the moment!  Our normal schedule runs until June 1, then we will have “Pre-Summer” training and our renowned Summer Camps kicking off subsequently - stay tuned for the details and signups!

Weekend Reportage: "wintery mix"!

What a weekend it was… It had everything in climate, with sunshine, rain, hail, sleet, snow…  It also had everything in squash, with some excellent training at the club to events up and down the eastern seaboard!   In NJ we had Coach Elriani from our Philly club bring through some of his elite JCT players to mix in with our Performance crew.  By way of competition, there was a Gold in PA, Silver in MD and Bronze in NY.  All of this, coupled with a solid dose of school squash and we have what the weather man might call a “healthy wintery mix”.

Philly had the Gold… and the dubious weather… and the three venues.  Lucky squash players and their families are tough!

Congratulations to Yiden on winning the BU13 in fine style.  Shout outs to Tony on his quarter, Ronnie on some solid wins and Jesse on some epic “almosts” against much higher rated players.

Talking about excellent efforts against higher rated players, well done to Leo in the BU15  who played a great event, pushing higher rated players close, defeating others and deserving a solid 10th place.  Also in the BU15 was Dev who enjoyed a couple of nice looking wins and a small lament that he and Julian travelled all the way to Philly… to play each other!

In the realm of “playing each other”, shout outs to Miss Katherine and Alison in the GU13 who played second round with Katherine ending up the victor on her way to a handy 6th place.  Alison on her behalf fought her way through to the consolation final, with some good squash and a notable 0.15 rating upset.  Much more to come from both.

Baltimore hosted a silver, NY a Bronze.  Our Silver standouts were Jayden in the BU15 who won out in a dramatic five game final!  Much respect also to coach favorite Humzah in the BU19 made the final and lost in a tight four games.  Best performance in NY was Dennis in the BU15 who won the consolation!

Back to the club and we have a busy couple of weeks ahead.  Preparations for the Texas JCT continue apace, we have a crew in Port Chester for a Silver at the same time and school squash is two weeks away from its climax!  A great time to be a squashie - see you all at training!