In Response to Guy Cipriano's Response to My Opinion Piece of April 24th by Richard Millman
April 28, 2015
*Note from Richard: I did say
in my second paragraph that I thought that the current system is right
for 99% of players. I am just trying to provide an opportunity for
those rare players who are passionately dedicated Squash to be
encouraged rather, than made to feel outsiders and for the college game
as a whole to be more open than closed so that those who choose an
academic/non squash pathway but are great players can at least have the
opportunity to train/compete with the best in the world more often.
* I suspect that if the Olympics came
on board, somewhere in that locker room full of privileged fathers and
sons that Guy was privy to - someone would suddenly be more interested
in facilitating my point of view for a son or daughter whose passion
and talent were single minded toward our sport.
As I said in my
original piece, in 95% of cases I would whole heartedly agree with the
views of the group that Guy spoke with put forward. It would most
certainly be wrong for the vast majority of junior players in this
country to follow the seven year, semester on/semester off program that
I was touting in my article as a path toward world class play.
However it is also the
reason that the United States will not be able to gain a foothold in
the upper echelon's of the World Rankings.
My solution was offered
( and I apologize if this was unclear) as a pathway for those rare
individuals for whom Squash is their absolute passion and who seek to
be the best players they can possibly become, whilst secondarily
gaining an education as a back up plan.
Currently this route is
closed through the college ranks and perhaps not possible at all
through the Ivy League, but my plea was to at least consider a pathway
for those individuals, albeit infrequent, who seek to attain their
highest achievable level in our game.
Clearly, from the
remarks that Guy passed on, this is not considered important to those
fathers that were discussing my article. And equally clearly, this is
why we have rarely had a player in the highest world rankings. It just isn't important in our society.
And I don't say that
that attitude is erroneous. It's just a shame that there isn't an
option for someone for whom it is not only important, but for whom it
is the only thing that is important.
Until an acceptable doorway opens, despite our undoubted potential, we must accept mediocre results.
Is that acceptable to the US Squash community?
Perhaps it is.
After all, why would we want to win a Gold Medal at a future Olympic Games?
