Over the past month, CitySquash team members have continued to build on early season success.  CitySquash brought home four more divisional titles from their last two tournaments along with numerous significant results.  On November 19th, 12 CitySquashers traveled to Pyramid Squash Club in Tuckahoe, NY for the Thanksgiving Silver Tournament.  In the BU13 division, Billy Fleurima won his first title of the season without dropping a game.  In the BU15 division, Michael Kelly finished 2nd losing an incredibly close final 12-14 in the fifth game.  Teammate Leondre Damil took home the BU15 consolation title.  CitySquash was fortunate to have two of its boarding school students, Alija Hogans and Santiago Moran, make the trip from Avon Old Farms for the tournament.  Alija placed 2nd in the BU19 while Santiago finished 3rd.  On the girls side, Katiria Sanchez continued her impressive form finishing 2nd in the GU19.  At her first tournament in the GU15 division, Mariela Mendoza finished in an impressive 4th place.
 
Opting out of the customary turkey-induced weekend of sleep and stagnation, a group of CitySquashers competed in the Thanksgiving Weekend Sportsplex Silver Tournament in Queens, NY. The tournament proved to be one of the most successful for CitySquash to date.  For the second straight weekend, Billy Fleurima won the BU13 division; this time winning the final in a tough five game match.  In the BU17 division, CitySquash team members made up three of the four semifinalists with CitySquasher Andrew Cadienhead going on to beat teammate Darrius Campbell in the finals.  Alija Hogans and Santiago Moran met eachother in the semifinals of the BU19 (again) with Alija just edging out Santiago and claiming 2nd place in the division.  Seetreeon Torres won the BU19 consolation title.  Katiria Sanchez won her second title of the season losing only one game throughout the tournament.  Lanique Rhyne won the GU19 consolation title.
 
All-in-all, a very impressive showing from all CitySquash competitors.  We are very proud of our team members and expect continued success for the rest of the season.

CitySquashers have been busy this fall with community service and cultural outings around the neighborhood and beyond.  On October 16, our middle school and high school students joined CitySquash staff, mentors, and hundreds of others to participate in New York City’s annual 5K Terry Fox Run.  Students raised over $1300 for cancer research and got a workout running through Central Park.  The same group of students continued giving back to the community on Election Day when they used their day off from school for a neighborhood clean-up here in the Bronx.  On Thursday evening, November 4, seventh and eighth graders took a trip to Stamford, CT for a screening of the squash documentary, “Keep Eye on Ball” about the legendary Hashim Khan.  The screening was followed by a question and answer session with the director and producer of the film, in which the kids asked questions and learned more about the making of the documentary.  Overall, it’s been a great fall of not only squash and school, but also community service and cultural enrichment!  

The first month of the 2010-2011 squash season has passed and CitySquash has already won five titles.  On the weekend of October 23rd, five CitySquashers competed in the Hackley School Bronze Tournament.  In the BU-13, CitySquash was too strong for the competition as William Pantle and Gabriel Garcia took the top two spots with Garcia winning the closely fought final.  Katiria Sanchez displayed her shot making ability as she won the GU-19 title dropping only one game throughout the tournament.  Over the Halloween weekend, two more CitySquash students won titles at the Pyramid Squash Halloween Tournament.  Robert Williams won the BU-11 division while Leondre Damil fought off the consistent William Pantle to win the BU-15 division.  Last weekend’s CityView Silver Tournament saw three CitySquashers reach the final with one winning the title.  Katiria Sanchez and Billy Fleurima both fought hard in their respective divisions to finish runner up while Robert Williams won his second title of the season in the BU-11 division.  The BU-11 final went down to the wire as Williams won 14-12 in the fifth game!  Congratulations to all CitySquashers who have competed so far this season.  Keep up the great work!

After six months of construction, the CitySquash funded renovation of Fordham University’s squash facility is complete! The five narrow American courts that served as CitySquash’s home courts since 2002 were renovated into four new international courts and are a tremendous upgrade. Each court has a viewing gallery from above and is lit with bright fluorescent lights. The most stunning new feature of the renovation are the two glass walls that separate courts #1 and #2. These semi-transparent walls create a ground level, panoramic viewing area and room for ten lockers. By funding the renovation, CitySquash has also gained increased access to the courts and a free 25 year lease on the facility. In addition to its functional importance, the renovation strengthens the bond between CitySquash and Fordham Universty and ensures that CitySquash will have a home in the Bronx for at least the next 25 years.

After a summer of anticipation, CitySquash’s newest college class has finally settled into their freshman year.  Freddy Hernandez recently made the trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to attend Franklin & Marshall College.  In August, long time CitySquasher, Prince Mensah began at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY.  Jesse Pacheco (who was recently honored as a Bulldogs Care Foundation All-Star) has started classes at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.  At the beginning of this month, Diana Edwards started her college career at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.  Jennifer Arboleda has traveled the farthest of all the CitySquashers to attend DePaul University in Chicago, IL.  While some of our students traveled far for college, Angie Morales felt right at home here in New York as she started at The City College of New York in Manhattan.  Finally, Katrina Intal started classes at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA earlier this month.  The entire CitySquash team is proud of our newest class of college students and wishes them all the best of luck on their college careers!

On Friday June 18th, 50 CitySquashers and seven staff members piled into vans and made the three hour trek to Williams College for the 8th Annual Urban Individual Nationals.  For our team members, Urban Individuals is one of the most important competitions of the year.  The weekend went great for CitySquash.  Our team members made up 17 of the event’s 32 semifinalists and for the second year in a row they captured seven of the eight titles.
 
6th grader Mellba Hassani won the Girls Under 13 division in a four game final.  After sneaking past teammate Gabriel Garcia in five games in the semis, 6th grader Jeremy Carrasquillo won the Boys under 13 division final 3-2.  8th grader Andreina Benedith cruised to victory in the GU15 division winning the final in three straight games.  9th grader Kingsley Amoako earned his second urban title by beating teammate Michael Kelly 3-0 in the BU15 final.  In the BU17 final, 9th grader Darrius Campbell battled back from an 0-2 deficit to win the title 3-2.  12th grader Freddy Hernandez collected his fourth urban title when he defeated teammate Seetreeon Torres 3-1 in the BU19 final.  As impressive as always, Jesse Pacheco captured her sixth straight urban title defeating her opponent in three games in the final of the GU19 draw.

CitySquash students, staff and mentors participated in the AIDS Walk this past weekend, walking 10 kilometers around New York City and raising money for AIDS research. CitySquashers had a great time, as always, and especially enjoyed participating in this meaningful event with their mentors. Many thanks to all our friends and volunteers who came out to walk with us!

CitySquash held its annual CitySquash Reads! event on Saturday. Students, parents, staff, mentors, volunteers – more than 100 people – read the book Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt to participate in our event. The event was a great success! Students and their families thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, discussing the pros and cons of living forever (we even had to discussion groups in Spanish!), and performing their skits. Special thanks to the CitySquash academic staff and group leaders!

CitySquash took 3 girls, Kateria Sanchez, Krista Lancione and Mariela Mendoza, and 10 boys, Seetreon Torres, Angel Maldonado, Michael Kelly, William Pantle, Markel Nunez, Bryson Grant, Billy Fleurima, Jeremy Carrasquillo, Robert Williams and Noel Ortega a total of 13 kids. Coaches were Esteban and Bryan.

Play started on Friday early so we left the Bronx at 7am! Arriving in plenty of time for our matches.

The girls were hosted by David and Pam Reiss – Thank you so much they loved your hospitality, food and beds! Although Kateria found the stairs pretty steep! Meanwhile the boys, plus coaches, were once again on a class room floor at the local Elementary school – many thanks to Julie Greenwood, Squash Haven for setting this up, we are really getting used to this floor!

The Bronze Nationals is always an exciting tourney with all the players out to prove that they should really be ranked higher.

All the CitySquash players performed well, and there were some really stand out matches, particularly the match between William Pantle and Jeremy Carrasquillo in the BU13s ¼ finals of the Consolation. The squash was of the highest level, with terrific length, great volleys and some well played tactical drops. Jeremy just pipped it 3-2, but all the games were very close. Jeremy went on to win the Consolation BU13. Meanwhile Markel was winning his way through this event too, unseeded he placed 6th in the tournament getting to the Classic Consolation final, a terrific performance.

Seetreon Torres literally flew through the BU19 event, his diving saved many points and prolonged rallies that he tended to win. Seetreon placed 3rd in the BU19 and amazing feat as he was not seeded to get that far. Seetreon is a great role model for all our kids, he plays fair, calls all his double bounces, congratulates his opponents, and his smile is infectious. What a credit to CitySquash.

Two of the girls were also doing just as well as the boys, with Krista winning her way to the Plate final, where she put up a great performance, but just lost. Kateria, who was playing up a division in the GU19s, was producing some wonderful squash to place 3rd., and she can play for the next few years too!

Finally Robert Williams who has played the Gold, Silver and now the Bronze National Closed Championships. Yes he won the Plate Final, playing some terrific squash, and using his drop shot to great advantage – Robert was last seen holding his trophy up high and making his way to the van. Dedicated practice will pay off as Robert found out.

All the other players performed well and had some very close matches, but a terrific week-end for all concerned.

Well done CitySquash – NOW for the Urban Individuals in June at Williams College.

CitySquash sent four juniors to these Championships, Myriam Kelly, GU19, Darrius Campbell, BU15, and Robert Williams, and Noel Ortega BU11.
 
These Championships were played at Williams College in the beautiful hills of the Berkshires. We were fortunate to have Rebecca Martin find us accommodation in a beautiful timeshare resort 20 minutes from the College. Many thanks especially from Darrius who enjoyed the Jacuzzi bathtub in the bathroom!
 
For Robert and Noel this was a huge learning experience. They had both been to the US Gold Closed National Championships and had a really tough time. Once again they had a tough tournament, but they both played some good squash and they will have learnt how to take their game to the next level.
 
For Darrius and Myriam, this was a terrific tournament. Myriam was seeded 3rd with Darrius being 5-8th seed. What a joy to watch Darrius, he never stops smiling and congratulating his opponent on good shots. He played some great squash, never giving up, always trying hard and chasing the ball down. He does play some risky shots, but when they come off they are spectacular and his cross court drop from the back left hand corner of the court is amazing! Darrius ended up finishing 3rd in the BU-15 and Myriam won the GU-19 event. A great Silvers and wonderful squash and WELL DONE CITYSQUASH.