College Squash

Applying to College as a Squash Player
35_imageGetting Admitted and Playing Squash in College By Bob Callahan, Princeton University Men’s Squash Coach, e-mail: bobc@princeton.eduPlaying college squash is a wonderful experience! The friendships, the camaraderie, the practices, the travel, and the matches – they all help make your college experience that much richer! Being a member of a team is a source of self-esteem, and a way to put order and discipline in your day. There is nothing more exciting than your team winning a close 5-4 team match in front of a packed gallery! These are memories that will last a lifetime. I hope to help you better understand the world of college squash so that you too can have a wonderful four year career at the college of your choice.

College Squash
College squash is a winter sport with teams beginning formal practice by mid-October to early November. Most teams, however, start “captain’s practice” as soon as they return to campus in the fall. Team rosters range in size from 10-20 players each. In intercollegiate matches, schools play their top ten players against their opponent’s top ten. Only the top nine results count, with the number ten match being played as an exhibition. Most college teams will play anywhere from 10-20 matches a year, mostly on weekends. Many schools also offer a full Junior Varsity schedule for their players in the second ten on their line-up. Practices are typically two hours each day after classes, six days/week. Team matches start in mid-November and culminate in the end of season National Team Championships in late February.
Preparing to Apply
First and foremost, the best advice I can give any aspiring college squash player is: STUDY!! Nothing will increase your chances of a getting into a top college more than getting the best grades possible, in the most challenging courses possible, along with having reasonably good SAT scores. College is an academic challenge, and schools look for applicants who have demonstrated a commitment to challenging themselves academically in high school. Being a “recruited” squash player may help your chances of being admitted, but it will not make up for a so-so academic record. It is never too early to start working hard. I talk to lots of high school seniors who, unfortunately, realized too late that they didn’t work hard enough in high school, and now don’t have the option to attend certain top colleges! It is a shame. It may seem like there is plenty of time to get down to the books, but time flies and before you know it may be too late. So get in the habit of studying hard and doing your best every year in school.
Since most schools require SAT tests (many of them require SAT1′s and SAT 2′s), you need to prepare for them as well. Lay out a schedule that will enable you to take both the SAT 1′s and SAT 2 ‘s several times by the November test date of your senior year.
Which Schools Should I apply to?
Once your academic house is on order, you need to focus on deciding which schools are of interest to you. There is an excellent college squash web-site, www.collegesquash.com, which lists all of the schools playing intercollegiate squash, each team’s ranking, coach’s contact information, team results, etc. I encourage you to visit the site often and follow the intercollegiate season. As you sort out which schools offer squash, start to visit the college’s web sites to learn more about each one and decide if they are academically and athletically in the right “ball park”.
 
There are a few ways to learn more about schools.
1) Visit the squash team’s web-site. Most teams have one nowadays.
2) Visit the school – play in a squash tournament there, attend a summer squash camp, visit the school for a day
3) Contact the coach – coach’s e-mail address is available on the school’s web-site or on www.collegesquash.com
4) If you are seriously interested in a school, send the coach a note expressing your interest along with a list of your squash and academic achievements. Let them know where and when you are planning to play in tournaments so they can come watch you play, and sort out a time to come visit them.


Visiting Colleges
Plan to visit colleges in the spring of your junior year. Meet with the coach, ask about the squash program, make an appointment with the Admission Office to meet with a member of the admissions staff, and get a feel for the campus and how you see yourself fitting in. Do you like an “urban schools” or a “suburban” school, big school or small school? We happen to have a wonderful group of college squash coaches right now, so you will have a wonderful squash experience at almost any school you go to.
If you don’t get the chance to visit a school in the spring, definitely visit over the summer. By the time September rolls around, you need to have narrowed down the list of schools you are interested in to a manageable few so you can visit each one over the fall. Use weekends in late September and early October to spend a day or so at each of your top choices. You should be able to pick one for Early Decision, if interested.
A few words about the NCAA. NCAA rules prohibit coaches from calling you on the phone until the July 1 before your senior year in high school. They can send you letters and e-mails starting in your junior year, (except questionnaires can be mailed to you any time in high school). You can visit a school anytime, but a coach can only provide you with an expense paid visit ”Official Visit” one time for a maximum of 48 hours after your first day of senior year. Each high school senior may accept no more than 5 official visits over the course of their senior year.
Recruiting
Colleges try to have a well rounded undergraduate student body with students representing a wide variety of backgrounds and interests. Strong academic performance is the key criteria for admission. However, colleges give credit to students who have demonstrated success in extracurricular activities on a national or international level of success. If a student is ranked #5 in the country in squash, it has clearly taken a lot of time away from studying to accomplish it. If that student has a strong academic back ground as well, they may be admitted before a student with only a strong academic background.
A coach is expected to inform the Admissions Office of any applicants that have a national or international level of success in their sport, so the Admissions Office can include that information in their overall evaluation of the candidate. Almost all colleges take into account the extracurricular contributions, including athletics, that applicants are likely to make to campus life.
Some colleges hope to enroll anywhere from 3-5 squash players a year, while others may hope to enroll only one. Coaches primarily use national rankings as the first source of information for evaluating high school players. If you want to be recruited, make sure you play enough tournaments to get a good ranking. If you attend a Boarding School, it is tougher for you to play in tournaments, so you need to forward your prep school results – good wins, good losses to the coach. Make a video-tape of you playing a match and send it to the coach. Be persistent, because the more information the coach receives, the better able he/she is to make a good decision about whom they will support with admissions.
Early Decision/Regular Decision
There seems to be a tremendous amount of interest in applying early to colleges I advise students to apply Early only if their academic profile is strong, and only if they know which college they prefer to attend. Early applicants find out whether they are admitted by mid-December, which is a great benefit to high school seniors. Does applying early give you an advantage over applying regular? Yes and No. If a college does not believe you would be a good match academically or athletically for them, they will not admit you simply because you apply Early. On the other hand, if a college believes that you are the kind of student-athlete they seek to enroll, the advantage to the student is knowing about admission in mid-December and then being able simply to concentrate on school the rest of the year.

When you apply
1) Keep in regular contact with the coach. Visit the school, watch a match, and send the coach your tournament results.
2) Keep studying hard, keep taking the SAT’s. No matter how you do, it can’t hurt.
3) Do a quality job on the application itself. There is no bigger turn-off to admission officers than reading an application the applicant appears to have done hastily or simply “blown off.” It doesn’t matter how good a squash player you are, if you don’t make as much of an effort on a college’s application as they expect to make evaluating your application, you’re going to lose out.
4) Keep improving your squash.
If you are accepted early
Congratulations! Great news! You have a wonderful four years ahead of you. Now continue to study hard, because that is the best preparation for college. Take a writing course, because you will do a lot of writing in college. Play a lot of squash so you are best prepared for the season ahead.
If you are not accepted Early
Make sure that you are collecting and starting to fill out additional college applications over the fall just in case you are not admitted early. If deferred early decision, talk with the coach and see if they can give you any feedback on why you didn’t get in (they will probably not have much feedback). Start to visit other colleges and talk to other coaches so you can create a list of your other top choices. Continue to talk to the coaches, study even harder in school, retake the SAT’s, and play lots of squash tournaments. It will be a nervous winter and spring of waiting but it will be worth it in April when you finally get that Admissions offer!
The good news is that students seem to be very happy wherever they wind up going to school, even if it wasn’t their first choice. No matter what happens I’m sure you will have a very rewarding college experience and squash career.
The College Years
Once in college, the years ahead of you will be split into different experiences and learning opportunities, and you’ll assume varying roles as a squash player. Freshman year, it is best to get comfortable with the school and the squash team’s culture, and learn how to be contributor right from the start. You’ll learn a lot from upperclassmen too. Sophomore year, you should take on more responsibility and develop your leadership skills. Be enthusiastic, work hard in practice every day, and maybe organize some social events. You will son be an upperclassman! By your junior and senior years, you should be a leader on your team, no matter what position you play. Set a great example at practice and work hard all the time. Help steer the freshmen and sophomores – they’ll be coming to you for advice.!
Before you know it your college time will be over. Enjoy every moment. All the best and good luck!

Amherst College


Bard College

Bard College


Bates College

Bates College


Boston College

Boston College


Boston University

Boston University


Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College


Brandeis University

Brandeis University


Brown University

Brown University


Bryant University

Bryant University


Bucknell University

Bucknell University


California Berkeley, University of

California Berkeley, University of


Colby College

Colby College


Colgate University

Colgate University


Columbia University

Columbia University

 


Connecticut College

Connecticut College


Cornell University

Cornell University


Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College


Davidson College

Davidson College


Denison University

Denison University


Drexel University

Drexel University


Fordham University

Fordham University


Franklin and Marshall College

Franklin and Marshall College


George Washington University

George Washington University


Georgetown University

Georgetown University


Hamilton College

Hamilton College


Harvard University

Harvard University


Haverford College

Haverford College


Hobart College

Hobart College


Illinois, Univeristy of

Illinois, Univeristy of


Kenyon College

Kenyon College


Lafayette College

Lafayette College


Maryland, University of

Maryland, University of


Middlebury College

Middlebury College


MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)


Naval Academy

Naval Academy


North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University


Northeastern University

Northeastern University


Northwestern University

Northwestern University


Notre Dame, University of

Notre Dame, University of


Penn State University

Penn State University


Pennsylvania, University of (UPenn)

Pennsylvania, University of (UPenn)


Princeton University

Princeton University


Purdue University

Purdue University


Rochester, University of

Rochester, University of


Saint Lawrence University

Saint Lawrence University


Siena College

Siena College


Stanford University

Stanford University


Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College


Trinity College

Trinity College


Tufts University

Tufts University


Tulane University

Tulane University


University of North Carolina

University of North Carolina


University of Southern California (USC)

University of Southern California (USC)


University of Western Ontario

University of Western Ontario


Utah, University of

Utah, University of


Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University


Vassar College

Vassar College


Vermont, University of

Vermont, University of


Virginia, University of

Virginia, University of


Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University


Washington, University of

Washington, University of


Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University


Williams College

Williams College


Yale University

Yale University

Women’s Teams

Updated on July 4, 2009


Amherst College


Bates College


Boston College


Bowdoin College


Brown University


Colby College


Colgate University


Columbia University


Connecticut College


Cornell University


Dartmouth College


Drexel University


Franklin and Marshall College


George Washington University


Georgetown University


Hamilton College


Harvard University


Haverford College


Middlebury College


Mount Holyoke College


Naval Academy


New York University


Northeastern University


Pennsylvania, University of (UPenn)


Princeton University


Saint Lawrence University


Smith College


Stanford University


Trinity College


Tufts University


Vassar College


Vermont, University of


Virginia, University of


Wellesley College


Wesleyan University


William Smith College


Williams College


Yale University

Emerging Teams

Updated on July 5, 2009

The College Squash Association (CSA) is dedicated to growing the sport of squash at intercollegiate institutions. If institutions or players are interested in starting a squash program, please contact the CSA. The CSA may be able to assist new teams in finding courts, equipment, or seasoned players in the school’s area to assist in growing a squash program.

Each season, the CSA holds team championships, which are composed of multiple divisions. Each participating team fields nine players; however, in the emerging teams division, five-player teams compete. In recent years, the following schools have entered teams in the emerging teams divisions of the men’s or women’s national team tournaments:

  • Boston College
  • Bryant College
  • Bucknell University
  • Drexel University
  • Georgetown University
  • University of Illinois
  • Lafayette College
  • New York University
  • University of North Carolina
  • University of Notre Dame
  • Siena College
  • Swarthmore College
  • Tulane University
  • University of Washington
  • University of Vermont

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