The Absence of Southern California Junior Tournaments
by Bob Hanscom


August 12, 2013 - Did you know....there are over 70 squash-courts in the Southern California Squash Racquets Association district, from Santa Barbara to San Diego!? Those courts exist in 40 different clubs, schools and/or university facilities. With these statistics, you would expect there would be an abundance of junior tournaments scheduled...especially junior ones! Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.

Okay...we'll have to excuse those clubs with only one or two courts, of which, (of the 40 clubs), there are 25. What about the other 15clubs having three or four courts? Unfortunately...no club in the SoCal Squash district has more than four squash-courts...at the moment!

So...of those 15 clubs eligible to host U.S. Squash sanctioned tournaments, (most importantly junior tournaments), how many actually do? To our knowledge, only four of them! They include: The Santa Barbara Athletic Athletic Club; Cate School (using SBAC); The Los Angeles Athletic Club and San Diego Squash. What about the other 11 clubs? Of those, seven have three squash-courts, one has four! Why are they not hosting at least one junior tournament? Good question!?

What and where are these seven clubs? 1) 24 Hour fitness in Glendale; 2) 24 Hour Fitness in Irvine; 3) Claremont Club in Claremont; 4) Claremont McKenna College in Claremont; 5) South End Racquet & Health Club in Torrance; 6) Tri-Fit Club in Santa Monica; 7) Equinox Sports Club in Irvine...which has four courts!

From the SportsClub/LA Website
Equinox Sports Club - Irvine

We think the best answer is...that of the seven above-mentioned facilities, only three have professionals teaching and/or organizing squash programs on a regular basis. Okay...that reduces the realistic potential for hosting junior tournaments down to three. With three or four squash-courts and thriving squash communities, why are they not hosting junior tournaments?

As mentioned in two previous articles titled "America's Deprived Junior Squash Players," (See: http://www.dailysquashreport.com/11_14_12_bob.htm) and "Deprived Juniors Re-Visited," (See: http://dailysquashreport.com/8_6_13_juniors.htm), Southern California is way behind the rest of the country - and especially compared with Northern California, which has nine junior events scheduled.

This situation makes it extremely difficult, inconvenient and expensive for the Southern California junior players to enter events that would give them an opportunity of establishing local, regional and national ratings and/or rankings so that they could be competitive with the rest of the country.

The sorry fact is...as of this date, (August 2013) only two junior tournaments are scheduled on the U.S. Squash tournament schedule for Southern California through April of 2014...both in San Diego! For the sake of Southern California's junior squash-players, let's hope more will be scheduled...sooner than later!