Dana Betts:
June 2002 Player of the Month

Dana Betts exeplifies a different sort of player of the month — the intense competitor who doesn't always succeed. SquashTalk wants to laud the intensity of effort and desire as well as exemplary results.

Dana Betts has been on the WISPA satellite curcuit qualifying quest for most of this year. For her efforts, she just missed qualifying for the US team. But her desire to win is unabated - and we hope she does succeed!

COLLEGE USA
Schedules
Team previews

DEPARTMENTS
Latest news
Tournament Calendar
Bronstein Global Gallery
Player of the month
Videos
History
Pakistan Squash
School Squash
Camp Index
Features Index
Player Profiles
Worldwide Clubs
Worldwide Links
Rankings
Jobs

More Good stuff:
About Squash
Just starting
Books
Juniors Squash
Women's Squash
Regional Reports

By Eileen Schneider

Brooklyn's Dana Betts is pioneering for American squash as part of the current generation of young US players on the WISPA tour. She graduated from Bowdoin in 2001 with degrees in English and Art, and has joined '99 Harvard grad Ivy Pochoda and '01 Princeton grad Meredeth Quick in the qualifying ranks of many professional tournaments this year. Dana is currently training in Greenwich with Damien Walker and plans to coach at his camps throughout the summer before she moves to Amsterdam in September to train at the renowned Liz Irving Academy.

Dana just missed being able to try out last weekend for the US Women's National Team, but told SquashTalk that she is setting her sights on the team for next year's Pan-Am Games. In her candid interview with SquashTalk Dana discusses the exciting life of a WISPA qualifier, issues in college squash, the Netherlands, and why it is important to get out of the house.

Dana is all smiles off court.

Graduating from an elite college and becoming a professional athlete is pretty unique. Why forgo a good job and join WISPA?
I just wasn't really satisfied with my collegiate squash career. I focused more on education and college life then and I just didn't give squash as much attention as I had during juniors.

Comparing Bowdoin's squash program to bigger schools, I see that I could have had a more focused experience (at a school with a stronger squash program), but I probably got more out of Bowdoin because squash didn't require all of my time. I took it so seriously when I was younger and had already achieved so much on the junior level - I thought why not give it another shot.

What are some of the obstacles a rookie faces?
As a qualifier or low-ranked player, you always face the strongest players in the first rounds of a tournament, so the stronger the players are, the less chance you have of advancing.

In WISPA there is a system of gold, silver, and bronze tournaments based on the prize money, so the more money, the more top-level players will show up. Basically all the tournaments in the U.S. that I've been playing in have been either silver or gold, which bring the top 20 players. So, in order to even enter these you have to qualify. Then if you do well in the qualifiers, you're going to draw some of the best players right off the bat.

In my first tournament ever, the Bronxville Open, I played Linda Chairman-Smith, whose top-10 in the world. That just keeps happening in the big tournaments.

So playing smaller tournaments is the best way to break in?
Yes, my best tournament was the Ontario Open because it was only a two- or three-thousand dollar tournament; I played some other younger pros. It was the first time I felt like I could really do it, and I wasn't being annihilated by a world champion. I'm actually moving to Amsterdam where there will hopefully be more opportunities to play small tournaments and move up.

So, how were all the May tournaments out west?
It was awesome, I had so much fun. Everyone traveled from Salt Lake to San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Seattle. I got to know people a lot better, it made me feel much more comfortable as a member of WISPA. Even though I lost, I was more and more confident with each match. I was believing in my fitness, being more aggressive, cutting off the ball. Mentally as well as physically, I'm a lot more comfortable as a player.

What about issues in your game? You're often described as having great skills and physical potential, but playing with confidence seems to stop you. Are you working on anything right now?
Yeah in juniors I was a lot more confident, I had a lot of big achievements, but in college I just didn't have the competitive attitude. Playing on the international circuit was a huge 180 turn again; I had to learn to fight all over again. That's probably been my biggest challenge this year.

Nationals (where Betts lost in the first round) was a huge blow, I trained too hard in February, and my legs, body, and mind were all so burnt out that I just broke down, it was the worst tournament of my life. I was frustrated with my game, I felt I was working hard but not improving. I decided to take a month off and learn to play squash because I love it instead of stressing out every time I got on the court.

What are you working on right now?

Dana went back to the drawing board after the 2002 Nationals

I gave up on weights, I think that heavy weights ruined my game last year, so I'm doing light weights to you know, get toned. I'm doing a lot of plyometrics to focus on agility, reflexes, recovery, and explosiveness to the ball. I play lots of matches; recently I've been focusing on putting together a point. In the beginning of the year I was just drilling, and it wasn't helping. I was also focusing too much on squash, now I'm getting out of the house more, spending time with my friends, trying to forget about squash sometimes, so I can focus more when I am training.

So college for you was sort of a break from squash? Do you think that is happening to the best American players, maybe college is keeping the U.S. from producing better world-level pros?
Depends how you look at it. Personally I don't think so, because getting an education is key. You never know if you're going to be injured, and if you want to live in America, you won't really have any options if you skip college. It also depends where you go, like Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams; the priorities at a DIII school are focused more on classes and the whole "college experience". So, the athletic training isn't nearly as intense as a place like Harvard where you have to get up at 6 in the morning and go do yoga.

You know Harvard, Princeton, Trinity, Penn… they have the courts and the intensity, because they all want to be number one. I guess they have to put classes on the side, which is hard, but the level of squash is so good, the players are rewarded with championships. I'd even say, Trinity, for example, has an all-pro team. I think they are so driven, the squash is like a minor league for professionals. Well, at least some of Trinity's success is owed to non-U.S. players. It looks like the make-up of teams has changed a lot in a short time, and seems like the trend is continuing,

What do you think about international recruiting?
I think its becoming bad, I mean, there are no opportunities for Americans to play at Trinity. They've graduated every American they had, and no younger kids are good enough to make the team.

Isn't it bringing up the level of play for Americans?
Yeah if you look at it that way, it will definitely raise American standards if you have to work so hard to get a spot at a college. Even now a lot of Americans are training in England all summer just to go back and make the team.

Speaking of European training, tell us more about your plans to go to Amsterdam: In the fall I'm going to Amsterdam for 4-6 months. So I'll be training at the Liz Irving Academy and hopefully playing in some leagues for money. There are Dutch, German, and English leagues that I hope to get involved with. I've already got my apartment, and I'm going to be rooming with Carlin Wing, who just graduated from Harvard. She's doing mostly photography, with squash on the side, and I'm doing mostly squash with some photography.

What is the biggest draw of training in Europe?
The leagues are a good way to make money, and they take care of a lot of expenses. And living in Amsterdam happens to be a lot cheaper. Travel and coaching are my biggest expenditures right now, but the Liz Irving Academy is only 15 dollars for an hour and a half. I'd say my training is going well in the U.S. I found a coach I really connect with, and feel like I'm improving, but I can't afford to take the number of lessons I need.

How long will you keep at it?
Everyone says you need at least 3-5 years, I'm probably going to give myself 3 years, maybe another year if it goes really well, I know I'm never going to be a pro forever, I want to get into other things…lets see, 22, 23, 24, 25, so you know when I'm 25 or 26 I want to start my career, which is going to be God knows what.

Squashtalk.com All materials © 1999-2003. Communicate with us at info@squashtalk.com.
Published by Squashtalk LLC, 95 Martha's Point Rd. Concord MA 01742 USA, Editor and Publisher Ron Beck,
Graphics editor Debra Tessier Send comments, ideas, contributions and feedback to the webmaster.
Copyright © 1999-2003 SquashTalk, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced in any form except for one-time personal use.

Dana Betts: June 2002 Player of the Month

Dana Betts:
June 2002 Player of the Month