Chelsea Piers Connecticut Club Already Off And Running
by Rob Dinerman
Dateline July 25th --- A visit to the Chelsea Piers Connecticut club, which opened for business barely two weeks ago but is already vibrating with activity, can be an overwhelming experience, but completely in the GOOD sense of the term, as I discovered first-hand when I traveled up there last Friday to take a look to see if the place lived up to everything I had heard about it. If anything, it exceeded my expectations, constituting a squash paradise (11 glass-back-wall singles courts along with a North American hardball doubles court with glass back wall AND a glass left side wall) in the midst of a 400,000-square-foot, three-level athletics colossus which in its first life had been a Clairol plant specializing in shampoo and conditioner.
In addition to the squash facility, there are two full-length courts for basketball and volleyball; two hockey rinks; an Aquatics Center featuring an Olympic-sized swimming pool plus a “splash zone” and a small warm-water pool; a Sports Training fitness, agility, strength and conditioning area with all the top-level equipment; an enormous gymnastics area; a climbing wall; a spinning-class room; seven indoor tennis courts; an indoor 100-yard turf field for soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and football, surrounded by a five-laps-to-a-mile running track; five batting cages for baseball; and, for children, a Trampoline And Adventure Center and a Childcare And Preschool area. On the afternoon of my visit, more than 350 kids were actively engaged in one or another of the week-long summer camp sessions that are scheduled in many of the sports, including squash, where camps will be run right through August. Both hockey rinks were hosting competitive games to my left as I walked past the lobby and towards the squash courts further down near the end of the massive ground floor.
Permeating the squash courts themselves, most of which were swarming with summer-squash campers drilling and playing under the supervision of members of the pro staff, is an atmosphere of happy energy, much of it emanating from Director Of Squash Natalie Grainger, 35, the former British Open and World Open finalist and multiple-times winner of the U. S. Nationals in both singles and (with Jessica DiMauro) doubles who at one point in the early-2000’s was ranked No. 1 on the WISPA women’s pro Association, on which she served as President from 2003 to 2010. I could hear, indeed even FEEL, the excitement in Grainger’s voice as she --- along with Vice-President of Corporate Communications for Chelsea Piers Management Erica Schietinger, who splits her time between the long-established Chelsea Piers branch in Manhattan and this new outlet in Connecticut --- gave me a full tour of the premises, which, given the plenitude of the athletic offerings, took well over a half-hour to complete. Grainger had clearly played a hands-on role in the design of the squash facilities, which form a kind of “club within the club” (especially given the existence of a pro shop with all equipment needs, including racquet-stringing, just behind the squash desk) consisting of two rows of courts with plenty of room in between.
To your right as you move through the area are seven singles courts, all adjacent to each other and with the glass back walls nearest to you, while to your left are four more, leading up to the doubles court, which is configured “sideways” relative to the singles courts, i.e. with the glass left-side wall nearest to you and the front wall adjacent to the right side wall of the nearest singles court. The mezzanine level (behind which there will bar in a few months’ time) commands a view directly onto the doubles court from in back, and, due to the left wall being glass instead of wood panel, from that mezzanine vantage point one can also see into the far row of singles courts. In addition to creating a markedly enhanced sense of “open-ness,” the fact that the left side wall is glass will also enable up to 500 people to watch a doubles match, and there is no doubt that Chelsea Piers CT will be hosting plenty of doubles (as well as singles) tournaments in the near future; indeed a bronze-level junior singles tournament is already on the U. S. Squash schedule on the last weekend in March, with many more inevitably to follow. The club has also already committed court space to both Darien High School and New Canaan High School, which have reserved court time for team practices after years of fielding teams that had no ready access to courts for their members to practice on.
Comprising the pro staff in addition to Grainger are Karim Yehia, who for several years in the early-2000’s competed on the PSA men’s professional circuit, rising as high as No. 73; John Burke, who played No.2 for a strong Dartmouth team in 1990 and has been a solid singles and doubles player in the metropolitan New York area ever since; and Cece Cortes, who as a senior at Harvard this past winter captained the Crimson squad to the Howe Cup emblematic of the national intercollegiate team championship. There will likely be at least one more teaching pro hired this autumn and Peter Creed of the PSA is coaching during the summer camp sessions, as are several current collegians who live nearby.
Chelsea Piers CT is located at One Blachley Road in Stamford, just off Interstate-95 and a 7-10 minute car ride from the Stamford train station, about an hour’s ride on the local MetroNorth line from Grand Central Station in mid-town Manhattan. Anyone interested in inquiring further about membership or enrollment in the August summer camps should visit the club’s web site (chelseapiersct.com) or call 203-989-1000 (the direct line to the squash club is 203-989-1600).
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