Rehearsal Tournament #2 played out this past Saturday, with four divisions of our best, brightest, newest and most experienced players battling it out over four hours. The event ran the full gambit, with Coach Jamie back from a quarter final of the St. Louis Open defeating Eric in the final, to several players at the start of their competitive journeys, there was a home for everyone. Overall it was a great mixture of skill, fun and sportsmanship all over the draws.
Our usual preamble, for those of you new to the Squash Tigers world, as background, Rehearsal Tournaments are:
“ … in-house events conducted at SQUASHTIGERS! For the 2023-24 season (Sep 2023 thru May 2024), the Rehearsal Tournament Series comprises 9 tournament events. The Rehearsal Tournament Circuit attracts entries from top juniors. It also provides a great home for beginners to gain rehearsal before they step out into the US Squash ranking world. Players play a minimum of three and a maximum of four matches on a Saturday, commencing first thing and concluding early afternoon. The event does not count towards rating or ranking, so players may be relaxed enough to develop their games in a friendly environment, yet serious enough so that they will be ready for the wider world when they get out there!
Premier Division saw Coach Jamie again emerge triumphant, defeating Leo, Edward and Eric on the way to the trophy. It was a long week on the courts for Jamie, having just returned from the St Louis Open where he was a quarter finalist, and preparing for another big event in Rhode Island next week. I’m sure it sounds more glamorous than it is, and good luck to Jamie! Eric made his first Rehearsal Tournament final, a week in advance of his 15th birthday! Happy Birthday in advance to the big guy! He defeated Caroline and Arjun on the way through, playing some of his trademark, somewhat idiosyncratic crowd pleasing leftie squash!
D1 saw Alice bouncing back from her qualifying defeat to the ever improving Leo to make the final, eventually losing out to a highly motivated Andrew who moved like the proverbial gazelle. Jayden and Sriya were the semi finalists, with Dev, Julian, Anika and Neil completing the draw. Great to see all of these players improving day by day and month by month. Certainly their overall skill levels are improving, ball control more consistent and rally length longer. Great examples of hard work paying off!
D2 saw one of the program favorites, Ronnie, defeating Jesse in a solid final. Matthew won his way into third place over an ever effortful Ethan. Ava, Dean and Vivi completed the draw. Not enough can be said about the D2 crew and their effortful display. Four match days are enough to test anyone, and they were running strong and competing hard until the very end leaving some very impressed coaches!
Finally, D3 saw Alison overcome a somewhat slow and sleepy start to take home 1st place. Yohan recovered from his qualifying loss to Dean and came second. Audrina showed real improvement from RT#1 and Vincent and Yaseen continued/started along their competitive journey, getting repetitions and more comfort with the whole tournament process.
Overall a golden event, with high standards of sportsmanship and skill. Our next Rehearsal Event of the 2022/2023 season will be November 25 and you can expect to get a direct mailout reminding you to enter. As always, the events are perfect opportunities to get matches, matches and more matches to prepare for the rigors of US Squash Junior Circuit competition. There are few junior US Squash events of note on that particular weekend, so please be aware that we cap our entries at the first 50 players to register, so if you intend to compete, sooner rather than later is the best way to avoid disappointment!
For our Rehearsal Tournament crew, see y’all in November for the next installment in the odyssey… and for our regular Squash Tiger crew, see you at training… bigger things ahead!
