U.S. Squash

U.S. Squash
Sport Squash
Abbreviation USSRA
Founded 1904
Regional affiliation Federation of Panamerica
Location New York City
President Peter R. Lasusa, Jr.
Chief Exec Kevin Klipstein
Coach Chris Walker
Official website
www.ussquash.com
United States

U.S. Squash is the national governing body for the sport of squash in the United States. U.S. Squash was previously known as The United States Squash Racquets Association (USSRA). The organization is headquartered in New York City and is a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee. U.S. Squash owns and licenses the U.S. Open, the North American Open, and all other US Championships.[1][2]

Last year, the organization held 30 championship events for juniors, adults, hardball, and doubles. The U.S. National High School Championships, held at Yale, is the largest squash tournament in the world in terms of the overall number of participants. In 2008, over 90 teams and 700 players participated in the tournament.[3] The Men's National Championship (the SL Green) and the Women's National Championship are held every year at the Master's Championships. U.S. Squash supports five national teams (Men's, Women's, Junior Men's, Junior Women's, and U23) that compete abroad in World Squash Federation team tournaments. The current top American male player is Christopher Gordon and the top American female player is Amanda Sobhy. The organization currently has 12,000 current members.[4]

History

In 1904, US Squash was founded in Philadelphia to satiate the desires of a growing and demanding population of squash players to organize. Subsequently with its creation, US Squash—which at the time was called the "United States Squash Racquets Association"—was the first squash organization in the world. The organization took up the mantle for being the arbiter in all dealings of the sport when concerning rules and regulations by being the first association to define and regulate the sport: this not only included rules about play, but also ball and court specifics/regulations.

By 1923, US Squash had grown in popularity throughout the country. This caused the organization to start to annually gather with an executive board meeting. The board members were to address the ever growing and evolving issues that manifest from such a human enterprise and conceive the new policies, by-laws and goals of the organization(or "mission").

As the 1950s had approached, the US Squash's Board's goal to nationally organize the sport had seemingly been realized; to boot the popularity of the sport had notably exploded. With the ever growing number of players the organization decided to expand the board positions and hired full-time executives to help run it. Along with the expansion within the sport, the organization opened two new subdivisions to fairly separate the players by starting both the Junior Nationals and the Senior Nationals.

In 1957, US Squash officially incorporated as a "not-for-profit" organization in the state of New York.[5]

USWSRA

By the 1970s, US Squash had helped pioneer the female surge in athletics for America. The organization had started a sister organization called "The United States Women’s Squash Racquets Association" (USWSRA). The USWSRA was meant to organize the sport for women on a national level; meaning to define and regulate the game for women the same way that the United States Squash Racquets Association did for men. The USWSRA and The USSRA worked together in conjunction until 1979; The two organizations decided to merge in an effort to help unify the sport to be a far more influential advocate for Squash around the country.[5]

Contemporarily

In 1975, Darwin P. Kingsley was made the first executive director of US Squash. From there he helped bring the organization and the sport to its modern prominence. When Kingsley first took over the position in 1975, there were 800 members and 40 clubs, by the time he—in 1992—had left his position with US Squash there were 10,000 members and 250 clubs. Kingsley's successor, Craig Brand, also left behind a legacy for the game as the chief executive officer of US Squash. In the ten years Brand had as CEO, he helped the integration of the international popular soft ball game to the US (where the hard ball game had dominated). Brand is also credited for bringing the opportunity for US Squash to become a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Palmer Page's stint as the CEO of US Squash was short lived but effective, after taking over in 2003; he quickly adopted and inserted 21st century technology to help support and improve the sport's modern needs and issues. Page celebrated the end of his position with US Squash shortly after its 100th anniversary in 2004. Kevin Klipstein had taken over the CEO position at US Squash after Page's leave.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ About US Squash
  2. ↑ Tournament list
  3. ↑ About US Squash
  4. ↑ History of the Organization
  5. 1 2 3 http://www.ussquash.com/about/history/


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