Manhattan Community Squash Center Changes Its Name To “Open Squash”, Holds Hugely Successful Fundraiser Featuring World No 1 Ali Farag       
by Rob Dinerman



photos courtesy John Musto

Dateline October 8th, 2021 --- On the evening of September 29th, a filled-to-the-brim crowd participated in one of the most captivating events in the recent history of squash in New York City. In his introductory remarks prior to an exhibition match between current World Open champion Ali Farag and 2018 British Open champion Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Board member James Green announced that the host Manhattan Community Squash Center, a five-court facility that has become an increasingly active presence in the Manhattan squash scene ever since it opened in November 2019, was renaming itself “Open Squash” to more fully reflect its primary mission of making squash more accessible to all and “open” to everyone. The Farag-Rodriguez match was the highlight of a fundraiser on behalf of the club’s Junior Scholarship Fund, which will provide “scholarships” aimed at enabling junior players who would otherwise be unable to afford the expense to play and take lessons at the club. Prior to playing their best-of-three exhibition match – which featured some spectacular shot-making and retrievals on the part of this pair of PSA superstars that electrified the packed gallery --- both Farag (who arrived in New York fresh from having won the Oracle NetSuite Open in San Francisco less than 48 hours earlier) and Rodriguez played practice games with a host of the club’s junior and adult members. Their interaction before, during and after the match, both with each other and with the spectators, was so friendly and upbeat that it infused the entire evening with a positive energy and an appreciation for what a wonderful sport squash can be when it is played at such a high level and in such a praiseworthy spirit.

   The opening of the club nearly two years ago represented the culmination of what Green described as “a ten-year journey” that began when the Printing House in the West Village did away with its squash courts in December 2009, part of a discouraging pattern that emerged during the first decade of the 2000’s in which the courts at a number of commercial clubs in New York were replaced by fitness machines and aerobics studios, leaving the squash players stranded and without the ability to continue playing squash unless they joined an expensive (and in many cases exclusive) private club. However, instead of submitting to this latter development, a bunch of the displaced Printing House squash players decided to “fight back” by building a club of their own rather than join an existing club. Among them were Green, David Puchkoff and David Ellen, the current Chairman of the Board, whose wife, Ingrid, was captain of Harvard’s 1987 national-champion women’s team. There were a host of others from the Printing House era who came and went throughout the intervening decade, during which several possible sites and financing options were explored (and in most cases rejected) before they finally settled on The Engineering Society Building of New York, located on 25 West 39th Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues), and began construction.

   Right from the start, the goal was to make squash more accessible to the general public and to create what their literature called “a squash-specific YMCA that’s just a bit more modern.” To that end, they set aside a portion of their memberships in order to enable them to offer discounted deals to those who wouldn’t be able to pay the full membership fees, while also offering a variety of differently-priced membership options. The Junior Scholarship Fund was established along these same philosophical lines, and the inaugural fundraiser in late September was deemed a huge success in getting this newly established Fund up and running.

   The Board has appointed an impressive group of people to its key positions. Cleve Miller, who sits on the Board and for the past several years has served as President of the New York metropolitan squash association, is the club’s General Manager. His staff includes Director of Squash John Musto, Director of Squash Operations David Hughes, Head of Junior Development Josh Easdon and Julie Lilien, who is the squash liaison with the Hudson Guild, a community organization based in Chelsea which sends a number of its junior squash players to Open Squash. Both Musto, who refereed the Farag-Rodriguez exhibition and for a number of years was the head squash pro at the Princeton Club of New York, and Lilien are winners of multiple U. S. age-group national championships, and Easdon developed an outstanding junior program at the Cobble Hill Club until the squash courts there were razed late last year.

   In addition, Harvard’s head coach Mike Way, who has led the Crimson men’s and women’s teams to a total of 11 national college team championships and 12 national college individual championships (hence 23 national championships in all) during his decade at the helm, was recently appointed as the Senior Advisor to Open Squash, and two of his most prominent Harvard squash protégés, namely Farag and PSA rookie pro Gina Kennedy (who between them won five of those 12 individual titles), were named the first two Open Squash Touring Pro Program participants, in which capacity they will represent the club in PSA tournaments and wear the Open Squash logo on their shirts.

   Board President Ellen and his passionately committed crew have ambitious expansion plans going forward, beginning with a second club in Manhattan’s financial district slated to open during Calendar 2022. Anyone who was present at the fundraiser last month could not help being struck by a buzz of excitement in the air, the happy energy that permeated the environment and the uplifting sense that something special is definitely happening here.

Anyone interested in learning more about Open Squash can do so by going to the club’s new website, opensquash.org.