This past Saturday again saw players from all across the Eastern corridor descend upon Squash Tigers for our Thanksgiving Rehearsal Tournament - the third RT of the season. As always the field was diverse, with our own Coach Michael’s leading off with his 7.0 rating, right through to JCT players and competition novices, we truly ran the gamut! Most importantly the sportsmanship and friendship that have become the hallmark of our Rehearsal Tournament Series was well in evidence! Check out our photo dump on Facebook HERE!
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 our new Head Professional, Coach Michael, again dominating a select field containing Parth and surprise visitor (and last seasons Bronze Nationals Champion) Ayan! Coach Michael and Parth played some monumental points, with the coach eventually showing why he's a 7.0 and Parth showing some of the form that has solidly ensconced in the top 16 of the National BU19's.
Coach Huma from our soon to open Philly club was kind enough to play in D1 and make sure all the kids were stretched to the maximum. Coach won the event handily, but made sure the players learnt from the experience with his usual kind and enthusiastic manner! Kaylee, reigning GU11 Champ and current #3 ranked GU13 unsurprisingly made the final with little trouble with Cooper defeating Shay in the 3rd place playoff. In a draw filled with highlights, congratulations to Jesse and Luke on a magnificent first round 3/2, narrowly won by Jesse and a shoutout to Bradley who competed well in his first event! Finally well done to Luke and Alison on an excellent battle for 9th, both showing some great squash and solid intensity throughout the day!
Division 2 saw a girl power podium, with Riya coming out on top, with Helen and Sara taking up the medals. In a draw filled with close matches and excellent squash we should also shout out Yaseen and 9 y.o. sensation Riyanshi who made life tough for all her opponents.
Division 3 was a future stars bracket if there ever was one! Leo won out over Evan with a huge five game win... Evan taking his own five game victory over Princeton earlier in the draw and Yashil was the final part of the puzzle making up the podium. It was a great morning of work from a group who will definitely grow up to be giant killers and under the tutelage of the ever patient Coach Ebonie and we thank her for her sterling efforts!
Overall a day that had everything, from the professional skill and intensity of Coach Michael showing the advanced players all four corners of the court, to our JCT and Gold Tournament standard players, preparing for their next event and into our neophytes who gained both confidence and experience to make that next step. Thank you as always to Coach Claire for her masterful construction of draws and kind leadership as Tournament Director.
Our next Rehearsal Event of the 2024/2025 season will be January 4, again at our New Jersey club 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 soon the next installment in the odyssey… and for our regular Squash Tiger crew, see you at training for our “Positional Control Week”!
