Searching for Squash Players

(Dec. 2000) A new web site launched this fall has the express purpose of creating a confidential free e-mail address registry specifically for squash players. Bill Kaplan, a former world ranked squash professional, has been promoting the new registry, noting that, “as people change homes, jobs, schools, ISPs or their web-based e-mail accounts, it can be next to impossible to stay in touch with them.”

Kaplan and his partners have applied for a patent on the technology behind the new site, Squash.FreshAddress.com. Their system provides the missing link between old and new e-mail addresses, allowing searches for a player by last name, general location, or old e-mail address.

According to an announcement from the site sponsors, “Searches can be executed to find an old squash buddy from a former school, club, or location, as well as to find a similarly skilled squash opponent anywhere in the world (for those out-of-town squash matches cleverly disguised as business trips).” The sponsors are also hoping that, if they can develop their website into a centralized reference point for squash players from all over the world, it may prove useful for the sport's Olympic ambitions.

For players concerned about keeping their e-mail addresses private, the site offers two levels of privacy protection, “optimal” and “extreme”. The extreme protection level requires the specific member authorization on a case-by-case basis before anyone can obtain that person's e-mail address. The idea is to protect members from unsolicited e-mail.

Helping with marketing is Vivek Nayar, son of Anil Nayar, one of the great squash players. Vivek says the site, “was created by squash players as a useful tool for the global squash community. For me, the service was useful for reconnecting with former college team members.”

(Dec. 2000)

In March, Dan Dudas cruised through the Men's 65+ draw at the U.S. National Softball Championships, allowing his four opponents a total of only 16 points in 12 games. It was his 9th national squash title (his 5th softball championship, plus four in hardball).

A former Navy pilot, Dan qualified for the Blue Angels in 1960, but a few months later he was admitted to Harvard Business School and decided to resign his Navy commission. He took up squash in 1968, when he was with General Dynamics in Fort Worth. A racquetball player at the time, he found the courts at Carswell AFB in constant use, either for racquetball or handball, so he turned to squash.

Now a defense consultant with his primary office in California, Dan still plays weekends at Washington's Potomac Squash Club or at the University Club, and occasionally gets some week day games at San Diego's Premier Athletic Club or the South Bay Club in L.A. He competes in two tournaments a year – the nationals, in both hardball and softball, and Washington's Woodruff-Nee, for which he usually drops down one age level.

At this year's national softball championships, no one scored more than four points in a game on Dan Dudas. On his way to the finals, he knocked off the #4 and #5 ranked players, Robert Kelley and Norman Hugo, as well as Robert DeSipio of Philadelphia. And who was Dan's victim in the finals? Like so many times in the past, it was 2nd-ranked Donald Rung, who has never beaten Dudas.

Don Rung, who didn't take up squash until 1972, when he was 40, plays most of his squash on the 16 narrow courts at Penn State University. He maintains his NCSRA membership and plays occasionally in Washington because he has family here, and he likes driving south from College Station for winter tournaments like the Sno-Ball and the Woodruff-Nee.

In the first two rounds of the nationals, Don Rung knocked off two other ranked Washington players. Bethesda's Robert Pirie, who plays at the Pentagon, was ranked #8 at the time, though his ranking has since slipped one notch. He lost to Don in three games in the opening round.

Next, Charlie Gunn, ranked #6 nationally and a mainstay on the C team for Potomac Squash Club, became the only player to take a game off Rung before the finals, and came close to pushing the match into a fifth game. In the end, it went to Don Rung, 9-3, 9-2, 2-9, 10-8.

While Dudas, Rung, Gunn and Pirie dominate the Men's 65+ division, it is not the only division in which local players excel. Other nationally-ranked players in the Washington area include Hunt Richardson, the pro at The Sports Club/LA, ranked #8 among men over 40, Bruce Collins, ranked #13 among men over 45, and Andrew Strasfogel and Meherji Madan, ranked #4 and #22, respectively, among men over 50.

Then there's Baltimore's Harry G. Steinman, who maintains memberships in both the NCSRA and the Maryland Squash Racquets Association. He plays most of his squash at either Washington's University Club or Batlimore's Meadow Mill, and among men over 85, there are only two in the country who can play on a level with Harry Steinman – Walter Mosenthal of New Orleans, ranked #1, and Dr. Frank McGlone of Denver, at #2. Harry has the #3 ranking.

New Club Opens at 22nd and M Streets

(Oct. 2000) The Sports Club/LA, at 22nd and M Streets, NW, opened its doors on October 10th with four international squash courts supplied and installed by Hollman Incorporated of Dallas, Texas (www.Hollman.com). Hollman also installed courts at the International Monetary Fund two years ago, and has done other court installations for the Sports Club Company at their outlets in New York and Los Angeles.

The squash courts, on the third level of the new Sports Club, overlooking two basketball/volleyball courts, are designed with a good viewing area for tournament and league play - a bench outside the glass back walls, running the full width of the four courts, with a raised standing area behind.

Also available at The Sports Club are weight-training (10,000 square feet) and cardiovascular conditioning equipment (4,000 square feet), four group-exercise studios, two swimming pools (for laps or group exercise), a group-cycling studio, an exercise studio, a pro shop, a child care program, two restaurants, and a spa with the trademarked name "Splash", featuring steam rooms, saunas and massages.

The club occupies levels two and three of the northeast corner of the new Ritz-Carlton building, which also houses a hotel and luxury condominiums (from $400k to $6M). The street-level entry is on 22nd Street, around the corner from the hotel entrance on M Street.

Club management has been selling memberships since March, including a "Bicoastal" option that gives members privileges at all the Sports Clubs in L.A., New York and Washington, as well as those planned for Boston, San Francisco, Houston and Miami. Another option is a squash-only membership.

Washington Squash Boom

(Oct. 2000) Squash courts are on the rise in Washington, and they are changing shape. The national capitol area has a current census of about 86 squash courts. (This count excludes several courts installed in private homes and private businesses.) Of the existing courts, two thirds are the narrow “American” courts and the other third are divided almost equally between conversion courts and standard international courts. By this time next year, a lot more courts will be in play, and only about half of them will be American courts.

(The term “conversion court” usually refers either to a former racquetball court converted for squash use, or to a squash court that has been converted from one form of squash to another – such as, American to international, or doubles to singles. For purposes of this article, it also includes “adjustable” courts that have movable back walls, allowing them to be used either as racquetball or squash courts. The use of an adjustable wall, or the conversion of a court from one use to another, usually requires some compromises, so such courts rarely have dimensions that are exactly compliant with specifications contained in USSRA or WSF rules.)

Until the Worldgate Athletic Club opened in early 1990, squash played in the capitol area was limited almost exclusively to American-style courts. There were two courts in the area that were lined for the international game – one at the West End Club, 24th and M Streets, N.W., and the other at the Potomac Squash Club in Rockville, but they were both conversion courts, and only the one at PSC met exact international specifications, because it had been converted from an American doubles court.

The Worldgate club decided to break new ground and go with international courts because some of the owners had consulted with contacts in Canada and were assured that the future was in international courts. They hired Sports Unlimited (Kent Taylor) of Stillwater, Oklahoma, to do the installation of the squash courts, as well as basketball and racquetball courts and other facilities.

But the future arrived slowly. As 1998 began, international squash balls and playing rules had almost completely replaced the American hard ball in recreational and competitive play, but Worldgate was still the only club in the area with courts constructed from the ground up according to international specifications. Almost all of the area's 13 conversion courts were lined for international play, but most squash was still being played on over 60 American courts. It wasn't that new clubs were ignoring Worldgate's lead and installing American courts. Very few courts of any type had been installed during the first eight years since Worldgate opened.

That all changed two years ago. At least 12 new international courts have been installed at five sites since the beginning of 1998. Four more are now under construction at 22nd and M Streets, N.W., for the new Sports Club/LA, and another 15 are on the drawing boards at three other sites.

Most major court contractors have participated in this building surge. Dave Carr of Washington's McWil Sports Surfaces did the four courts at The Potomac School in McLean, and also got the contract to gut Rockville's Potomac Squash Club, taking out two American courts and one converted international court, and replacing them with three state-of-the-art international courts. The American subsidiary of German contractor ASB, headquartered in Atlanta, got the prestigious contract to replace two aging American courts at the University Club with an international court that converts into a doubles court by means of a movable side wall. The same company is replacing four American courts with five international ones at Alexandria's Episcopal High School.

The Court Company, in Memphis, has garnered two of the biggest contracts, putting in two squash courts and four racquetball courts at the University of Maryland, and six squash and four racquetball courts at George Washington University. Dallas-based Hollman, Inc., which installed two courts at the International Monetary Fund in 1998, is now working on four courts at The Sports Club/LA.

The newest project, Results – the Gym, on Capitol Hill, has not yet selected a contractor. Dave Carr, Hollman and Gordon Anderson all submitted bids. (Canadian Gordon Anderson, whose courts are highly regarded in the squash community, has had difficulty competing on price in Washington, and as a result, has been largely shut out of the recent expansion.)

Much of the growth has been attributable to increased popularity of the sport among local juniors. People like Wendy Lawrence, Jerry Sardone, Howard Day, Hunt Richardson and Frank Lutes have been investing time in promoting squash among younger players for years. When international coaching talent was added to the mix, in the form of South African Jan Botha and Australian Ken Hiscoe, programs at Episcopal High School and the Potomac School were energized to an entirely new level.

Watch the Juniors page, for Barry Wood's upcoming report on the current state of interscholastic squash in the Washington area – schedules, match formats, the teams to watch, and their players and coaches.

Growth of the International Game

New Capitol Hill Courts Under Development

(May 2000) The project to build new international courts on Capitol Hill is a "go", about to move from the organizing, fundraising and planning phase into construction. Sponsors of the project, which has been under development at 315 G Street, S.E., for the better part of a year, held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, May 3rd.

Investors who bought the property last summer for $1.8 million have signed a management lease with Results Gym, operators of a popular club at 16th and U Streets, N.W. Results will supervise the buildout of the facility at an estimated cost of $3.5 million, and will then manage the property under the name Results Gym-Capitol Hill.

Squash operations, with four international courts, will be under the direction of Wendy Lawrence, former manager of the Washington Sports Club on Capitol Hill. She says the squash program will include a strong league schedule, private and group lessons and the Junior Training Center that she has directed since 1981.

Doug Jeffries, President of Results, is also an alum of Washington Sports Club, having worked as a personal trainer under Wendy Lawrence's management. After several years as an independent personal trainer, he started Results three years ago, and has been hugely successful at his downtown location.

In 1998, Results won recognition from Fitness Management magazine as the best designed gym in the U.S. The Charlottesville architect who designed it has also been selected to work on the new Capitol Hill property, at the site of the former Giddings School. With this new facility, the architects are expected to take an innovative, all-inclusive approach. Their design may include, in addition to the squash courts, a swimming pool, rock climbing, fitness center, child care, martial arts center and day spa. The construction contractors, including the contractor for the squash courts, have not yet been selected.

Results-Capitol Hill hopes to open its doors in March, 2001, but will go into pre-sales of memberships later this month. The business plan calls for single memberships to cost $50-$75 per month, plus an initiation fee.