College Squash Association
Formed in USA to Promote, Govern Growing College Programs
September 30 2002
Heads of the USA men's and women's college squash leagues announced
this week the inauguration of the CSA (Collegiate Squash Association).
CSA has been created to promote and oversee both men's and women's
collegiate squash, according to co- presidents David Talbott (Yale
- mens) and John Illig (Bates - womens).
"It's an exciting time for college squash in the USA,"
said Talbott, from his office at the ultra-modern Brady squash
complex at Yale - which features one permanent four glass wall
court and two three glas wall courts - "We have expansion
in the number of teams, on both the men's and women's side, we
have great new facilities to play in across the board, and we
have crowds of greater than 1000 attending the big matches."
The CSA will guide college squash through this growth phase, working
to expand participation level, numbers of teams, and assisting
in development
of new programs.
UNIFYING MEN AND WOMEN
"The women's squash teams are excited to be joining
forces with the men's
teams on the promotional side," said John Illig, women's
prexy. "With new teams emerging, such as the new George Washington
Team, the Navy Women, and others the quality of women's college
squash in the USA is on the upswing."
VISIBILITY
Talbott cited three important factors in the creation of the CSA.
The first is the need to increase visibility and publicity about
USA college squash.
The CSA has created a partnership with SquashTalk.com
to create an immediate increase in visibility. This will give
the college squash programs access to the more than 1 1/2 million
visits per month to the SquashTalk internet news site. Along with
that will be an increased emphasis throughout the college teams
in providing accurate scheduling and results information. This
timely information will all be immediately accessible at www.collegesquash.info.
TEAM DEVELOPMENT
The second factor is team development. The CSA is putting in place
several programs to help schools start up squash programs. These
include experienced CSA coaches who can come onsite and help a
school to set up its squash activities. Another idea the CSA is
considering is to add a five-man team division to the end of season
men's national championships. There are several club-level teams
which have enthusiastic participation, but have difficulty fielding
a full nine-man team for the championships in
February.
RECRUITING
The third factor is to increase flow of players from juniors to
team play in college squash. "With the increase in junior
squash ranks across the USA, the college teams would like to make
those juniors more aware of all the college programs and their
teams and coaches," said Talbott. "Not everyone can
play on the top five teams, and we want all the youngsters out
there to know that there are a lot of quality squash programs
in college, and that they are on the increase."
"We have also seen a big increase in inquiries from international
high school players over the past year." said Illig. "What
we need to do is provide more information so that they can understand
the choices and realities of coming to the USA for college and
for squash. It's a chance to get a great education in the USA
but it is also a serious academic commitment.
"We are in the process of creating a permanent CSA logo,
as well as a CSA web page, which will serve as the official United
States collegiate squash informational site. The CSA web site
will be completed sometime in October 2002, and is already online
at www.collegesquash.info," said Illig.
The CSA has already seen significant new team activities. Middlebury,
University of Illinois, and University of Utah are all at this
writing potential new competitors for the 02-03 college season.
Other schools on the horizon include several schools in the famous
ACC conference and schools such as Northeastern and Brandeis.
For More information contact:
David Talbott, Men's teams president, david.talbott@yale.edu;
John Illig, Women's teams president,
jillig@bates.edu;
or Preston Quick CSA Executive Administrator at Prestonbquick@hotmail.com;
or go to the website www.collegesquash.info
