Deprived Juniors Re-Visited
by Bob Hanscom

August 5, 2013 - Here's some interesting statistics regarding the Decathlon Club Junior Gold tournament taking place in Santa Clara, California over the weekend of August 9th through the 11th, as well as with junior squash nation wide.

Of the 165 total players entered in the Santa Clara event, 84 of them (over half) are from California, (55 boys/29 girls) with the rest representing 15 other states. However, of that 84 from California, only FOUR players represent Southern California, (San Diego to Santa Barbara), one girl and three boys, with one of them on a wait-list! What "story" does that tell!? Again...out of 165 players in a major U.S. Squash junior tournament being held on the West Coast, only THREE from Southern California will compete...ridiculous!

In a recent survey of those working with junior squash players in Southern California, it is estimated that there are approximately 240 boys and girls involved in formal squash-training programs, but only 40 of them listed in the U.S. Squash rankings. What about the other 200!? What's the problem, or more importantly, what's the answer?

Could it be that the "average" Southern California squash family just can't afford the time and/or expense to travel up north, or worse, back east an effort to have their child gain a U.S. Squash national ranking, with hopes of rising in those rankings, allowing them to compete with the rest of the country's juniors? We think so!

The answer just may be that (as of this date) there are over 135 U.S. Squash junior tournaments scheduled in the United States between August 9th and and April 18th, 2014, with ELEVEN of those in California! And what's worse, only TWO of those tournaments are scheduled for Southern California!

As the title of this article indicates, our Southern California junior squash players may just be appropriately labeled as: "America's Deprived Junior Squash Players!"