Mike Desaulniers

"Skill, well, anyone can develop skill. Ah, but The Touch..."

--Maurice "Rocket" Richard, former Montreal Canadian hockey great.

Mike Desaulniers has "The Touch", that intangible quality that propels merely superb athletes into the realm of brilliance.

The captain of this season's undefeated men's squash team has yet to lose an individual match in his four-year varsity career, and isn't likely to tarnish that record Saturday afternoon when Harvard faces defending national champion Princeton at Hemenway. The showdown promises to be the racquetmen's sternest test, and the winner will have an inside track to the national title.

Desaulniers' contest, like his other collegiate confrontations, should grant the Crimson a sure win. But the senior from Montreal will not rest content unless Princeton falls. "In 14 of the 16 years before I came here, the team won the championship. But since I got here, we've lost three straight," he says.

As captain this year, Desaulniers has the responsibility of integrating a highly individual game with communal team spirit. And although he took the fall semester off to compete as Canada's top-ranked player in the World Amateur championships in Australia, he has been on campus since the end of November, helping the squad to prepare for Princeton.

Ask any member of the squash intelligentsia about Mike Desaulniers and you get responses like, "What can I say that wouldn't be trite?" His pure ability is beyond reproach; but he has more at stake now--this time, as captain, a team victory is everything for him.

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Desaulniers took up squash at 12, learning the basics from his father, a prominent squash figure in his own right. He travelled up and down the West coast from his Vancouver home, skipping among the squash hotbeds of Seattle, Portland and Victoria to compete on the junior circuit. His family settled in Montreal when Desaulniers was 16 and remains there.

And his name deceives; Desaulniers admits sheepishly that "My French is not so hot." The French Canadian name which plagues copy editors goes about three generations back, he says.

Desaulniers says he likes to log about one and a half hours a day on the court, in addition to conditioning off the court. Since the crucial Princeton match follows so closely on the heels of exam period, the team has carried a double burden during the apocalyptic month of January. But Desaulniers says, "We've weathered the storm this reading period better than ever before."

The squad has progressed bit by bit this season, and Desaulniers feels the team is peaking at the right time. "We're all very hyped for this weekend," he adds.

Desaulniers leads a squash double life. He currently holds the undisputed top ranking among North American amateurs. With the 70-plus ball (the staple of the American game, although rapidly being replaced by the soft ball internationally), he occupies the second slot overall in North America, behind only Sharif Khan and ahead of several outstanding pros who have nothing to do but, well, play squash.

Desaulniers' game is obviously sound in every respect, but the talent which receives the most attention from squash observers is his incomparable quickness on the court. He scrambles well, returning seemingly impossible shots, and exerts inordinate pressure by volleying balls that many would not reach before the bounce.

The key to his concentration, he says, rests in his never thinking of the consequence of a match when playing. "Even if you're not playing well, you can overcome it by blocking everything out of your mind."

He came to Harvard in search of a solid education. Ironically, although Princeton now recruits much more aggressively than Harvard, the coaches from New Jersey never contacted Desaulniers. Chances are they don't want to let another slip away.

Like most squash enthusiasts, Desaulniers exalts the intricacies and fascination of squash. "Squash combines the strategy and tactics that racquetball lacks with the physical aspect that tennis lacks," he says with conviction. "It's cathartic--you go out there and beat the hell out of the ball. Besides, you can play it all your life."

But he does not feel the game is beyond criticism. "The administration of squash in the U.S. has left the game in its elitist roots--racquetball has scooped up the mass market, while squash has lagged, although it can be promoted with great success." He points to once tennis-hungry Australia, where squash now has greater popularity than its outdoor counterpart.

And, Desaulniers is the only person on the Crimson squad that will face Princeton who did not attend a prep school.

But social implications aside, the match Saturday should prove dramatic. It means more to Desaulniers and fellow seniors George Bell and John Stubbs than any previous varsity contest. To win, the Crimson will probably have to contend not only with the Tigers' depth, but also with a pack of bussed-in Princeton fans, who have intimidated Harvard in the past.

But Mike Desaulniers has the touch, the squad seems prepared, and the conditions for an upset seem propitious.

And lest Princeton fans rejoice in Desaulniers' final match against the Tigers, there is something they should know: Mike's younger brother Brad has applied to Harvard. The younger Desaulniers has twice reached the finals of the U.S. Junior Open.

"And he hasn't applied to Princeton," the Crimson captain says with a smile.