At
a recent U.S. Squash Junior Gold squash tournament, an American player
was seeded #3 in the draw and drew a bye. No problem, as he was now
scheduled to make it through to the semi-finals of the event. Hold on
for a minute! In his second round, he was to meet a Canadian junior
squash-player! And...because this player had NO U.S. Squash ranking or
rating, he was...unseeded! Oh, oh...as being unseeded, he could have
met any of the players in the draw! Guess what...the Canadian boy beat
the American boy in three-straight games, (9-8-3) sending him off to
the consolation rounds. There...he met and was successful against
another American player, but met another Canadian in the consolations
second round and lost...again! Okay...it's the luck of the draw,
right!? Not so fast! What happens now to the American boy's U.S. Squash
ranking? Well...because he was sent off to the consolations, he
received many less ranking-points for the event. Had he held his #3
seeding and progressed through to the semi-finals of the main draw, he
would have received many more ranking-points. In our eyes, this
wasn't/isn't quite fair to the American player(s). The
reason...following the event, with ranking points awarded, the Canadian
players are removed from U.S. Squash ranking consideration, with
ranking points awarded to the American players based on their
tournament results! Why is this allowed to happen, i.e. Canadian (and
Mexican) junior players allowed to play in important American
ranking-point tournaments? The American junior squash-playing boys and
girls work so hard to establish average ranking points in order to earn
themselves a place in high-level junior tournament draws...then get
knocked out by (unseeded) foreign players in the first or second
rounds! Again...not fair in our eyes! What's the history of U.S. Squash
(USSRA) junior squash tournaments? Perhaps it's that years ago, there
weren't enough American junior squash-players to fill the draws, so the
Canadian and Mexican juniors were "invited" in. That is no-longer the
case! In most gold and JCT junior squash tournaments, the draws are
filled to capacity...with a wait-list created! We say...allow the
Canadian and Mexican junior squash-players to play in the U.S. Squash
Junior Open...but allow our American juniors to proceed through the
draws of our gold and JCT events...the way they should! Say what!?
