Sunday afternoon, February 28th, Cambridge Mass: It couldn't have happened at a more appropriate place: The spacious, grand Barnaby Courts, built by Harvard University to house their dynasty, their perennial National #1 men's squash team. About 900 fans were gathered here. At least 150 of them having taken the long dreary drive up from Hartford in support of Trinity.

All year, starting with pre-season prognostications by all of the other college coaches and a pre-season prediction by Squash Magazine, there has been anticipation about the ascendancy of Trinity's squash team, this year, finally. Even with all that anticipation, it was an exciting afternoon, an exciting match, an exciting moment.

Harvard came to play today. Tim Wyant made that clear, as he bested Akhil Behl in three games early in the contest. Other matches were contested closely: Lefike Ragontse went one game down as did Marcus Cowie. But in the end, the result wasn't much different that expected, as the superior mental toughness of the Trinity nine had them prevailing in most of the matches after Tim's lonely win.

Trinity's nine was just too strong, and too together.

Trinity College's win is an amazing change in US college squash. Since the college championship tournament was initiated in 1956, the only American teams to win have been Ivy league schools, with the exception of Williams in 1958. (Western Ontario won it twice, in 1977 and 1980 in the days of Phil Motahdi and teammates).

Trinity's win is a healthy change, and hopefully the beginning of a trend in squash. Trinity's team is visibly much more diverse, heterogeneous, and integrated than any of the Ivy teams. This is right in line with Trinity's vision for its vitality as a school in the 21st century. Trinity, surrounded by some of the poorest areas of Hartford, has been reaching out to the community around it, embracing the diversity around it and trying to assist the community. Trinity also has visions of international scope, which its squash players of international orgin represent.

Paul Assiante has shown a lot of imagination and courage in bringing together this team. He has brought together a team of individualists, of talented athletes, of highly charged competitors, from different cultures. All of them have been drawn by the chance to play squash in the USA and to get an American education. But for Paul to mold them into a team has been, no doubt a great challenge. And for the squad of players to all work together and play together as a team is no less an accomplishment for each one of them. Many of them, used to being the best in their local region, or even country, found themselves thrown together with such a group of squash luminaries, that they found themselves in unaccustomed diminished positions. That they all stuck together and fought the hardest is a testament to each of them.

For the junior players who look up to the Trinity team as a mark of excellence, they can see that squash can come from a different mold, a more diverse mold than we are used to in USA squash. And that is good for the growth and future of the US squash game.

In the third place playoffs, Yale repeated their regular season result against Princeton, winning the third place spot 5-4.

So congratulations to Trinity in 1999. We know Harvard, Yale, Princeton and others will be fighting hard to catch up to them next year!.

[Photos from day 2: semis]
[photos and comments, first day's action]

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