Sport & Health Interclub Varsity League
SIVL Results and Ladder 2007/2008

The inaugural season of the Sport & Health Interclub Varsity League finished Friday Feb 29 with a presentation which saw Bethesda–Chevy Chase High School victorious. Caroline Sieber (B-CC Captain) was presented with the beautiful SIVL Cup which will be held in the Trophy Case at the school for the year. Connie Barnes, Director of Squash for Sport & Health, was magnanimous in her praise of Ms Sieber who also received a $200  Gift Certificate as the SIVL Most Valuable Player for the 2007-08 season.

Coach Barnes said that the SIVL has already become one of the largest High School squash leagues in the US . This season players from Landon, Whitman, St Albans, Holton Arms, Langley , Stone Ridge, Madeira , St Stephens and St Agnes, and GDS participated in 30 matches over the winter season. The B-CC team with its captain’s excellent promotion and organization skills included 17 players. Coach Barnes said that 3 other local school had already requested inclusion for next years league.

Participation in playing Squash has increased significantly especially at the junior level in the last five years. When Barnes commenced at Bethesda Sport & Health in 2002, there were 10 juniors playing, the number now approaches 200. The interest, Barnes claims, is due to the nature of the game “it is fast, exciting and challenging and also a family and lifelong sport.” Barnes continues, “while the Private schools play squash only in winter where it offers a welcome alternative, the Public schools play squash all year round. Our Summer camps are especially popular. We have two types, one for the younger set the 7 – 12 yr olds which are fun and teach the basics of squash. The other is for the squash participant who wants to improve in technique, form, and general ability and is for the more serious player”.

Squash is not only popular at the High School level, several Middle Schools including Pyle, Holton Arms, Cooper and Westland participate in coaching at Sport and Health Clubs (Bethesda, Washington DC, McLean, Herndon, Gaithersburg). The SIML Sport & Health Middle School League incorporates monthly matches between the schools played at Bethesda Sport & Health.  If your school is interested in participating in squash Barnes can be contacted at cbarnes@sportandhealth.com

Sport & Health
Middle School Tourney Wrap Up

To participate is to WIN!

Thank-you to those parents who visited with us last Tuesday to watch a stunning display of squash matches at the Sport & Health Middle School League SML at Bethesda S&H. 

I was impressed by the wonderful sportsmanlike behavior and impressive squash (especially by newcomers Copper). The Pyle team are in their third year and their enthusiasm for the sport is terrific! Westland and Holton Arms are in their second year. The format for the competition included participants divided into 3 groups including players from different schools. Those players then played 1 game against each other. 103 games were played by 25 participants! 

Outstanding performances were recorded by: Jacqueline (Pyle), Jeremy (Pyle), with special commendation for Nathalie (Holton Arms), Alex ( Westland ) and Phil (Cooper) in Group 1. Thomas ( Westland ) was outstanding with special commendation Tyler (Pyle) and Robby (Cooper) in Group 2. Win (Holton Arms) and Hannah  (Pyle) were outstanding,  with special commendation for Abishek (Pyle) in Group 3. 

All in all it was a fun afternoon which ran quite smoothly. Thank-you to Caroline Sieber (B-CC squash team captain) for helping with scoring. 

Every participant won a prize and also received a free raffle ticket – the prizes? A SquashEmpower racquet, a US Squash bag and a Polo shirt, congratulations to the winners. 

Other Activities: The National Capital Open a PSA (Professional Squash) event will be held at Bethesda Sport & Health Jan 29 – Sun 3 and your clinic for the period Tuesday though Thursday will be free admittance to the matches. You will see some of the top 50 players in the world competing for $20,000 prize money – it will be great fun – keep an eye out for the clinics by the pros and other activities! Also see details at www.aussienicksquash.com If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please let me know. 

Participant photos will appear on this www.aussienicksquash.com shortly! Also see the site for information on clinics, summer camps (day camps and residential), coaching and more! See the Juniors ladder which will be updated with yesterdays information & results http://www.aussienicksquash.com/juniors/s&h_ratings.pdf  if you aren’t on there, please let me know.

Mark your calendars for 4 events: 1)PSA as listed above, 2) Silver Squash juniors tournament at Regency Sport & Health – Jan 11 – 13. This will include lower graded players than the Gold tourney we ran in November. Please join in the fun,  3) Silver Squash juniors tournament at Worldgate Sport & Health – Jan 25 – 27 (Herndon)

Jan 15  Tuesday 3.30 – 5.30pm at Bethesda S&H for the next Middle School tourney!

See you on the court

Cheers,
Connie Barnes
Director of Squash and Racquetball
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Sport & Health Interclub Varsity League

The Sport & Health Interclub Varsity League will start with a record number of school teams participating this year. The SIVL welcomes emerging teams from Holton Arms, St Albans , Langley and StoneRidge high schools. The teams will play in 27 matches over winter and also in the SIVL tournament Feb 8 – 10. The schedule can be found here. This year the teams are playing for the beautiful SIVL perpetual cup (pictured right) which will be engraved with the winning team’s name and be held at that school  for the year. Director of Sport and Health Squash, Connie Barnes, also announced the commencement of the SIML Sport & Health Interclub Middle School league – this winter that competition will welcome emerging team Cooper Middle School . Middle school matches will be held at Bethesda Sport & Health on the new showcase courts on the following dates – Dec11, January 15 and February 12 – come and cheer for your team!

2007-2008 Squash Tournaments - DC and Environs
Hunt Richardson has published the 2007-2008 Squash Tournament Calendar for Washington, Baltimore and Richmond.  See all the local events this season in one place!  No more surfing around to find out about a squash event near you. Click here

Ben Rind doing hard yards in Brisbane, Australia

Bethesda S&H regular, Ben Rind, is spending 6 weeks in an intensive training program under the tutelage of Australian coach Marc Forster. Marc is currently coach to several Brisbane based PSA and WISPA players and has taken students of Ben's age on a temporary basis from around the world. His program is based at Griffith University in Brisbane , Australia . Ben will train daily with the squad and compete in several local tournaments. Of course a little time is also planned for exploring some of the culture of sub-tropical Brisbane and South-East Queensland including the Gold and Sunshine Coasts ,  Australia Zoo etc.   

In the 1980's Brisbane was arguably the hot spot of world squash. It was the home of the Australian Institute of Sport's squash program which churned out players of the caliber of Chris Robertson, the Martin family, Rodney Eyles and other top 10 stars. So great was the depth of squash talent during that period that one league team (Bardon) had a world top 10 player at the number 2 position, and the same club had three other teams with world top 10 players listed! Brisbane League had over 50 divisions early in the 80's, and getting to play in the top division, 'State 1' as it was called, really meant you were world class or not far off. Whilst the depth of squash in Brisbane has receded from those heady days, the competition is still relatively strong, and coaches like Marc understand what is required to be a top player. Ben, who is starting at Tufts in fall, is keen to improve his game as much as possible before he starts, and we know he is in the right place to do that.

Ben enjoying the view after a set of
'Dune Sprints' at Moreton Island
Read Ben's Blog to see more

 Ben's adventure comes courtesy of a newly formulated program offered by Aussie Nick in conjunction with Marc Forster and his team. Sessions are available any time through the US summers and are offered over a duration of 2-8 weeks.  If you or your child are interested in exploring this opportunity in more detail, please direct inquiries to Rod and Connie Barnes at AussieNick. 

Sport & Health Summer Camps

DC Juniors Doubles Finalists
Andy Maruca  and Joe Powden (Results) teamed up to place 2nd in the US National Junior Squash Doubles Championships  (U-15 Division) in Wilmington, DE  on February 26. This was the first year that Maruca and Powden have played together as a doubles team. They are currently ranked  #7 and #15 respectively in singles and Powden is the reigning U-13  US Doubles Champion, having won that title last year with Hunter Abrams of Wilmington.

Since there are no North American doubles courts in the Washington are, Maruca and Powden trained at the Meadow Mill Athletic Club in Baltimore.  Wendy Lawrence, Joe Powden's mother and Director of Squash at Results Gym and the Potomac School, has announced that Results hopes to add a doubles court when they expand their squash facility in the near future.