Students look forward to nationals, futures in squash

By Brittany Roker, Staff Reporter

Walking into the Berwyn Squash and Fitness Center, the girls’ squash team was ready for another fun-filled and intense practice, but without the availability of a court, they had to resort to another method for exercise: Latin dancing.

“There are a lot of drills that we do that require some imagination,” Coach Cecily Englander said. “When we do get together and there are no courts available to us, then we also have to find ways of getting fit.”

The excitement of squash is what made junior co-captain Justine Shank want to play in college.

“Besides the sport itself, which I just think is fun, it’s a very social fit,” Shank said. “I love the sport the most, but then you go down to Berwyn Squash and you know everyone behind the desk. It’s such a fun environment.”

Although squash is a club sport at Conestoga, it has been growing in popularity and many students on the team plan on playing in college. Senior co-captain Mike Dolente, who began playing squash four years ago, enjoys the intensity of the sport and wants to continue. Although Dolente plans on taking a gap year, he wants to play squash in college as well.

“It is something that I am really good at. It just came naturally to me,” Dolente said. “I keep learning more and more about it and everything I learn, I love.”

Each year, the players who dream of playing at a college level look forward to experiencing that higher level of competition at the national squash championships, which took place at Yale University this year.

Players from Conestoga competed with over 100 schools from across the country. At press time, ’Stoga’s A team was 1-2 and the B team was 2-1. Since the championships began in 2005, the number of entered teams has steadily increased as squash grows in popularity across the country. Englander believes that there are many factors that contributed to the popularity.

“It’s exciting to play a sport that is really intense but also a lot of fun,” junior Peter Guo said. “The dedication and time that all of the athletes on the squash team put in to play squash is about the same amount that all of the other people that play winter sports and Conestoga is very lucky to have a club to play.”

Brittany Roker can be reached at broker@stoganews.com.