USSRA'S KLIPSTEIN and task force chair MUSTO explain new vision

Yale Club's John Musto Chaired the USA Competition Task Force. (photo © 2006 Debra Tessier .)

In what hopefully what will be the sign of things to come in the USA squash community, US Squash has taken a well-conceived long term view in the just announced "restructuring" of the US "National" Squash Championships.

The USSRA's Kevin Klipstein and Task Force Chair John Musto were anxious to explain to SquashTalk what was behind their press release, and we spent a productive hour discussing their new plans by conference call yesterday.

After a few minutes of discussion - it became clear why they were so anxious to get on the phone with me. They have put a new plan in place that could be a big win for US squash in both the short and long term, and what they have put in place is hardly done justice by the brief press release put out Friday afternoon. (Although after listening to them for an hour, I still can't say I am totally clear on the details of their plan - most likely because it is still fluid and "evolving" on a daily basis.)

TASK FORCE
Musto was recruited by the USSRA earlier this spring to lead a task force to decide what to do about the US squash championships. They were open to me about the issues they faced. There were concerns leading up to this year's event on a few fronts. Most importantly, there were concerns that some of the National championship draws had become "diluted" (their word), in some cases with a National Champion being decided in a draw with as little as three entrants. Another issue was the concern that the overall Nationals event had become so large in numbers that it could effectively only be held at two venues (Harvard or Yale). A third concern (that came up in the conversation but not explicitly part of their problem definition) was the level of participation on the women's side.

The key result of Musto's task force is the creation of three events out of one; which (a) Potentially will make each event more successful that the predecessor format; (b) Will provide active players with more "National" scale events to play in; (c) Will provide more geographical distribution of the events — in principal the recommendation encourages the three events to happen on the East, Midwest, and West coasts in any given year; and (d) Will give the events more international profile and standing.

PHASE ONE: TWO EVENTS FOR 06-07
There will be a two-phased implementation. Only two of the three events will happen next season (in a bridge form) - these will be (1) the "US National Championships;" to be held in the traditional early March date and comprising the familiar age group events in the familiar format, plus the S.L. Green US Men's Closed and US Women's Closed Championships; and (2) the new "USSRA Championships;" to be held in the January timeframe, which will comprise an open pro event (at the 6.5 skill level) and skill level events open to all USSRA members. The vision for this second event will be that it comprises the largest draw sizes and is the main membership gathering on a national basis.

PHASE TWO: SPLITTING AGE GROUPS INTO TWO EVENTS FOR 07-08

S.L. Green US Men's Closed Champion Julian Illingworth is preparing for a PSA pro tour campaign. (photo © 2006 Vaughn Winchell.)

The second phase is where the plan gets more difficult to explain. In the second year, the age groups will be split into two events, creating a "more open" open age groups, and a new "closed age groups."

This will result in a fundamentally new event, most probably in late fall, in which the USA age groups events will be turned into an international Open age group event, along the model of the traditional British Open - open to a worldwide audience and marketed as such. This will take place in conjunction with the "US Open."

This newly formulated "US Open" is potentially the real visionary-event of the three. The idea sprang from the view that it was necessary to separate "closed age groups" and "open age groups" competition. What was happening over time, especially on the women's side, was that teaching pros coming into the USA after playing careers abroad, we in some cases dominating age group draws, discouraging Americans from entering. US Open age group championships is an exciting concept, offering up the possibility of an event every bit as attractive as the British Open to Masters Players. According to Klipstein, they have already initiated discussions internationally around the concept of coordinating the major pro event schedules to make this third event follow and more predictable date. The task force envisions the future potential for a loose linking together of various international Masters events into some semblence of a Mini Masters Tour.

Ivy Pochoda - spent several years on the WISPA tour, a regular national event competitor: Can the new plan draw more women's participation? (photo © 2006 Debra Tessier.)

The US Open for next fall is already well along in the planning phases, so that event will be left alone for the upcoming season. The USSRA intends to expand and change the event at that juncture to including the Open Masters concept, esentially twinning the event with the British Open.

Meanwhile, the "Closed Aged Groups," which will continue to take place alongside the S L Green and Women's National Closed, is expected to be a smaller but important event, crowning the US citizen's champion in each age category, and hopefully drawing a larger domestic subscription with the separation of non-citizen's into the US Open event.

Several key benefits of separating the current nationals into the US skill levels and the two US age groups are;

• Players no longer need to choose between competing at an age group or a skill level; they can compete in both and go for both titles in a given year.
• By the same token, players don't need to guess which draws their closest competitors have entered - thereby hopefully each draw will become stronger.
• By separating the events; there are more cities that will have enough courts to host the Nationals, and two cities can host the events each year.
• There will be a "true" US age group champion crowned, among players who in some cases have competed together for decades.
• There will potentially be a new high level international class age group event to test the best US based age group players.

The main unknowns at this point are;

• Will the skill levels draw enough age group players; i.e. will the 45 or 50-plus player also enter the skill level groups. (if not the skill levels would become a "younger crowd" nationals.) The plan counts on this to happen in order to make this a national squash gathering.
• Will the separation of US players and non citizens into two age-group titles be a net benefit — The committee thought the answer would be a clear yes; but there are some questions as to whether the pool of potential players is large enough.
• How to bolster the participation levels on the women's side — According to Musto, this is a priority concern and an open question at this point.

Some of the other possibilities that may come out of this new arrangement are exciting to Musto and Klipstein.

The thought process behind the new setup is that it will lead to a series of regional skill-level championships, building up to the National event each season. And the USSRA is hoping to structure the skill levels (now the "USSRA championships") in such a way to attract signficant collegiate-level participation.

The next step is finding the venues for next year's events. There is an open bidding process that the USSRA has put in place - trying to recapture the spirit of the seventies and eighties when cities lined up to try to gain the bid to host the US nationals.

The USSRA is encouraging bids at the present time, and wouldn't comment on possible venues, though according to them, several cities have already expressed interest.