Stories of Squash

championship after championship.

Just imagine all of the stories the basketball or hockey team would have gotten if they had a 40, 50, 60 or 70-game winnnig streak.

My most memorble squash match wasn't when the Crimson lost, but when it beat Yale on the last day of the season. The Crimson defeated a heavily-favored Eli squad, 6-3, to earn a share of the Ivy title. That is the match that I remember.

The squash's teams winning streak isn't the only one that fell this year under my byline. The women's tennis team lost an Ivy match for the first time in six years, falling to Yale, 5-4.

What impressed the most about this personable team was the way the players handled the loss. It was disappointing for them, but they bounced back to win several tough matches to earn a share of the Ivy title.

One of the toughest stories I had to write was when men's tennis Co-Captain Bill Stanley was dismissed.

I had only written about three tennis stories when this happened. The last thing I wanted to do was get the team mad at me. It was a story I didn't necessarily want to write, but it was something I had to do.

When Stanley finally decided to discuss the situation with The Crimson, Mark Brazaitis and I met with him for an interview. We all sat down and Stanley said, "First of all, I would I like to say that I have no comment."

What?

Luckily Stanley and the team thought the story was fair. It was still the toughest story I have ever had to write.

Traveling was always fun with any team. You hear a lot of good and bad jokes, a lot of good and bad singing. It's always more comfortable going to the match with a team than coming home on the bus after a loss.

But usually, once the team hit Connecticut, everything was forgotten. They would ask the coach to crank up the radio, and the laughing would start again.

I never thought that I was an outstanding writer. I never covered any big beats. Most of the sports I covered averaged 75 fans or less. But I stuck with those teams, because I enjoyed working with the players and coaches.

Several people told me that I should "move up" after covering the same teams for a couple of years. But like I always told them, I think volleyball is the best beat in the fall, squash in the winter and tennis in the spring. This may sound conceited, but I believe I was covering the best beats.

I think the next squash and tennis reporters are very lucky people.

The rest of Crimson sportswriters may think I'm crazy, but I will miss them anyway. Thanks Mark, Julio, Jenny, Mike, Colin and my brother Casey for everything. Well, I'm not going to miss my brother because I'm stuck with him forever. Even though most of the people at The Crimson are liberals, it's still an OK place.

At the squash banquet in April, the guy who didn't know anything about squash four years ago was being thanked for his coverage.

Every time I wear the jacket, I think about the illustrious history of the squash program. I think about the comments both players and coaches made that night. But most of all, I wear the jacket with pride.