Our April Rehearsal Tournament was another solid one for the history books, with our novices in particular shining out!
Five Divisions were contested, with the full range of Squash Tigers experience represented! Coach Jamie was top seed in Premier Division and happy to work the kids around the court while he prepared for this weeks St. Louis PSA Open - good luck to Coach! As always the event ran the full gambit, with our pro on top court, our mid-experience crew contesting the middle divisions and some our favorites in D5 preparing for their charge into the US Squash Tour!
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!
As has become our custom in reporting, let's start with the future... so to speak!
D4 saw Jonah over Ansh in the final. Both finalists had solid performances, Jonah winning his first event and Ansh playing arguably his best squash ever. Ethan rounded our the podium, only losing out to Ansh on countback! Shoutout again to Riyanshi, our littlest competitor, who was tough and resolute and a pleasure to coach through the day.
D3 saw Ronnie emerge as the #1! D3 had one of our real coach favorite players, Ronnie take out the top position over Shona and Yohan. Shona and Yohan had a great 3/1 fight for Silver of which they should both be proud. To digress for a moment, Ronnie has had a great season, making top 32 as a BU11, aging up and winning through to the quarter finals of the Bronze Nationals U13 draw, all while moving his rating 0.8 inside a year! What a guy... :)
D2 was won by Mimi, who played some great squash, with Neil and Jesse bringing up the placings. Mimi, always very fond of our bagels on Rehearsal Tournament weekends, rebounded from an unsettling qualifying loss to regain her equilibrium and win out. Congratulations to our Nationally ranked #18 GU13 superstar!
D1 was tough, really tough. Showing the benefit of his recent hard work in the Performance Program, Leo won out over Chloe and Jayden. Shout out to Sriya who played strong and focused squash all day. All four have much of which to be proud. Spring is conventionally time to work on fitness and technique, so sometimes tournament form suffers, but all played remarkably sharply and should be congratulated.
The Premier Division was won by Coach Jamie, who entertained the crowd and gave the players some valuable high tempo experience. Coach defeated Eric in a fun final, some of which you can see here on our Insta Page, with Madeleine and Ayona rounding out the top 4.
At training we are into a "Boasting Week" and on a US Squash front, next weekend sees the Main Line Gold just down the road in Philly. We will have coaches on the ground, so contact Paul if you would like to be mentored through the event. Please remember that much of next season's success is determined by the hard work we put into our games throughout Spring and Summer, so let's stay "on the ball".
Big things ahead, much work on the courts and it’s all to be played for... see you all at training!
