We are so happy to report just some of the great results from this past weekend, including Shehana Vithana who won the girls U17 draw and Ken Lamb who won the boys U11 draw! In addition, Ryan Marshall was seeded 6th in the tournament and caused a huge upset by making it through to the semi finals, and later finishing fourth overall in his age division. Maggie Goodman also came in 7th in the girls U13 draw after playing a qualifying match before the main draw, wow! Tom Hampson finished 11th in a very full and competitive boys U15 draw. 

This was just a peek into some of the results by our amazing juniors and we are so proud of everyone who competed this weekend. 

East Coast Squash Academy would like to wish our junior members the best of luck at the Australian Junior Championships this weekend in Cairns. We are excited that so many of our juniors are making the trip up north from Sydney! We cannot wait to see how you all go - we will be sure to stay posted about all of your results. 

Good luck to: 
1. Ryan Marshall (NSW Team - Blue Tongue) 

2. Shehana Vithana (NSW Team - Blue Tongue)

3. Tom Hampson (NSW Team - Blue Tongue)

4. Tom Lacy (NSW Team - Blue Tongue)

5. Jake Lacy

6. Anna Goodman

7. Sam Goodman

8. Maggi Goodman

9. Ken Lamb

Go team!

Below is a short clip of Chris Gordon (USA, World #59) and Nicolette Fernandes (Guyana, World #23) discussing the growth of squash in the United States. There has been an exponential increase in the number of players in the last few years. Both Chris and Nicolette agree that College Squash in America is a big reason for that. In fact, one of our assistant coaches, Tiffany Hau, agrees that college squash has helped enormously with the growth of the sport in America. "Because of college squash, more juniors have an interest to play at a top level without feeling like they need to the lifestyle of being a full-time professional player. However, this is definitely a double edged sword because we have fewer professionals on the tour from the US. Many players do decide to play college squash and end their careers there. It would be great to see more players deciding to go professional as well as seeing the sport grow to more than just juniors and collegiate players, too!" says Tiffany. At the end of the clip, Chris Gordon does add in that it would be great to create more public facilities in the US so people become aware of the sport and the health benefits it provides. Hopefully we see similar growth of the sport in Australia and that the US will see some more public spaces for squash courts! What an exciting time for squash in the United States....

A great article, "Are Great Coaches Becoming an Endangered Species?", was posted on Changing the Game Project's website. To read it, click here. 

It is an excellent article for reflection from our coaches here at East Coast Squash Academy. The article covers things such as the definition of success, what it takes to be a coach, positivity, and what it means to be a good coach. In addition, there is a big push for more coaches across all sports all over the world - including here at the Academy! If you are interested in coaching, please contact our director Aaron Frankcomb on our contact page. 

We appreciate everything our coaching staff has done for East Coast Squash Academy thus far - without these great coaches, we would not be where we are today. 

"Last Monday, I was asked to attend the Squash Australia High Performance review in Canberra. It was great to see so many passionate people come together, trying to drive and direct our sport to improve. Right now, there is much to look forward to since Squash Australia has reassigned a new CEO, Richard Vaughan, and the board is a relatively new as well. Hoping for the best for squash in Australia and that this sport will soon turn around and go in the direction we in the squash world want it to.  I look forward to helping this game develop and hope our national body can re-position our great sport!" 
--Aaron Frankcomb, East Coast Squash Academy Director (pictured on the far right with fellow Squash Australia members at the event).