BOYS SQUASH Since its beginnings in 1890, Choate Rosemary Hall has built a formidable reputation on a tradition of academic excellence. As we proceed into our second century, the focus on outstanding teaching and scholastic achievement is still at the heart of the school's mission. Fortunately, attainment in athletics also is an important part of our institutional heritage. At Choate, athletic excellence is judged not by a team's win-loss record, but by the skills, discipline, teamwork, sportsmanship, and dedication to improvement demonstrated by our athletes. Happily, the pursuit of these ideals--these "habits of excellence"--often results in winning efforts, as well. Choate Rosemary Hall teams and athletes in a wide range of sports are highly successful in competition at state, regional, and even national levels.
The Choate program is one where there is a great emphasis placed on player development. We are especially proud of the fact that most of our players are "homegrown" products; that is, even some of our most accomplished squash standouts started playing the game competitively while here at school. Choate fields six interscholastic squash teams each winter: three for boys and three for girls. There is also an intramural program which has produced some of our best interscholastic players in subsequent years! Joining the squash program at Choate entails becoming a part of a special tradition. Choate coaches spend a lot of time developing winning ways on the court, but they are more concerned with fostering team identity, a strong work ethic, and a spirit of fair play. Choate is especially proud of winning six of the past nine annual NEISA Team Sportsmanship Awards, a recognition bestowed by vote of the thirty-odd teams participating in the New England Championships tournament.
A Brief History of Choate Squash Squash at Choate has a long and distinguished history. For several decades, the Choate boys were coached by Gordon Stillman, the dean of prep school squash coaches in the 1950s and 1960s and an excellent player in his own right. In the 1970s, Bill Cobbett took the helm of the program. Choate teams first emerged as perennial squash powers in the late '70s and early 1980s when Steve Piltch--later head coach of men's and women's teams at Harvard--and Tom Generous coached the boys' and girls' squads, respectively. After 1983, under Tom Foster's guidance the Wild Boars consistently finished as one of the top prep school teams in interscholastic play. A fire in the north end of the school's Winter Exercise Building in 1976 destroyed the original squash courts. When the facility was rebuilt and re-christened the Johnson Athletic Center, Choate had ten beautiful new state-of-the-art North American courts: the finest interscholastic facility around. The school started a USSRA junior tournament shortly thereafter--an event which quickly became a popular fixture on the circuit each Thanksgiving weekend. Choate's courts also became a regular venue for the boys' and girls' interscholastic championships in February. Following the shift of the prep school game to softball, the school converted a bank of its North American courts into glass-backed courts with international markings. The advent of the 2001-2002 season marked the completion of the latest phase in the growth of the facility, as the Wild Boars play in a brand new squash center that is among the best to be found in the world. The team has enjoyed a fair bit of international travel the past few years. In 1997, the Choate team played matches against schoolboy teams in Great Britain as part of a spring break tour of England. The following year, the varsity squad spend a long weekend in Toronto, Canada, winning both interscholastic team matches and individual tournament flights. The Wild Boars enjoyed another highly successful U.K. tour in March of 2001.
Squash Facilities at Choate We are fortunate to have ideal squash facilities for training and match play. The Johnson Athletic Center boasts ten glass-backed international courts with a squash lounge and ample gallery space above and behind each court. The two "show courts" feature state-of-the-art Armourcourt construction in pale shades of blue and gold--our school colors--as well as real-time video capability and electronic scoreboards. One would be hard pressed to find better playing and spectating facilities in an interscholastic squash facility. The Choate courts have hosted numerous New England Interscholastic Championships for both boys and girls over the years, as well as matches in the Men's National Intercollegiate Championships and the USSRA National Championships. Choate is co-hosting (with Yale University) the Nationals again in March of 2002. The Wild Boars host their own tournament--the Choate Junior Squash Championships--each January in addition to a team invitational, play day events, and dozens of dual matches each winter. The existence of a recently-refurbished indoor track right next to the squash courts facilitates the team's impressive conditioning regimen.
The Season
The Choate teams travel widely in search of the strongest possible competition. The Wild Boars routinely meet the very best squads in the Northeast in dual match play. Outstanding teams from the Philadelphia and Boston areas are invited to play in the Choate Team Invitational each year, an event with a round-robin format. In past years, Choate teams have indulged in road trips, too; Philadelphia and Toronto each have hosted the Wild Boars several times. One thing that distinguishes the Choate program is its embrace of junior tournament competition. In addition to hosting our own USSRA event on campus in January, there are open weekends built into the winter schedule every year so that Choate players can compete in other USSRA-sanctioned events in pursuit of national rankings. In fact, Choate coaches have accompanied their players to dozens of junior tournaments in the past five years, including events in Hanover, Hartford, Greenwich, Poughkeepsie, Philadelphia, Newport, Boston, and New York City. No other prep school facilitates as many opportunities for junior tournament play in season as Choate does. The Wild Boars have embarked on international travel, as well. During 1997's spring break, nine boys and six girls from the Choate teams accompanied coaches Ned Gallagher and Tom Generous to Great Britain for an itinerary of matches against twelve English school teams. The Americans acquitted themselves quite well, posting winning records in match play against their British counterparts. In 1998, coach Tom Foster took the varsity team to a tournament at St. Andrew's College in Canada. The Choate contingent prevailed in both team and individual formats. We have also played host to traveling sides from overseas: Eton College in 1991, Lancing College in 1998, Harrow School in 1999, and Winchester College in 2000. Another successful U.K. squash tour was undertaken in March of 2001, and the Wild Boars won most of their matches against their host schools.
The Coaches Will Morris will assume head coaching responsibilities for the boys' varsity squash team this winter. Coach Morris is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he and former Choate coach Tom Generous started a very successful squash program. As the #1 player in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Coach Morris won the top draw of the inaugural ACC Squash Championships. This summer, he trained full-time with Neil Harvey, learning the system that has been used to produce many of the world's top players, including Peter Nicol and Ong Beng Hee. At Choate, Coach Morris teaches chemistry, coaches boys' soccer, advises in Richardson House--a sixth form boys' dorm--and serves as the faculty adviser to The Press. Coaching the boys junior varsity team is Ned Gallagher. He has been involved with the boys' squash program at Choate since 1987 in virtually every possible capacity: head coach, assistant coach, and JV coach. Coach Gallagher teaches history and English, serves as head coach of the school's boys cross country and tennis teams, supervises Memorial House--a dormitory of ninth- and twelfth-grade boys--and is also Choate's Director of Athletics. An alumnus of Williams College, Mr. Gallagher is a PSA-certified squash professional, a member of the USSRA Junior Committee, and the Executive Director of the New England Interscholastic Squash Association. Jim Phelan is a veteran of the school's mathematics department who coaches the boys' thirds team, now in its fourth year of existence. Outside the classroom, Coach Phelan has been active coaching football at Choate, organizing the local youth soccer organization, and ferrying his own sons--two of them Choate players--to USSRA junior squash tournaments over the years. He and his family live in Clinton Knight House with fourth and fifth form boys.
Choate Squash Credo Excellence in Choate Squash is not related to wins and losses, but rather includes:
Choate players in the past shared this belief in what Excellence really is. That fact, more than all the championships, has made our program successful. If you believe in it, you will be successful, too, no matter if you ever win a match or not. |
Squash
has been a sport in which Choate teams have traditionally excelled. Both
boys and girls teams have won New England
Championship titles, as well as a host of Founders League crowns. The program
has produced many individual standouts as well, including USSRA national
champions and dozens of
nationally-ranked players. Choate Squash alumni in recent years have captained
a number of collegiate men's teams, including those at Brown, Harvard, Princeton,
Trinity, Vassar,
Williams, and Yale. At least a half-dozen or so recent intercollegiate All-Americans
played for the Wild Boars.
The
squash season begins in November following the conclusion of the fall sports
season with open tryouts
for three boys teams: varsity, JV, and thirds. The varsity and JV squads
train together, with an 80 minute on-court session and a 30-minute conditioning
workout every day. The
emphasis in the thirds program is developmental. All three teams play a challenging
schedule of matches.