Squash team with spirit!!

Click on photo for Guardian article:

Whitehorse – Day 1

We had a wonderful send off from the Ch-town airport. Family, friends,
and the media all turned out to wish us well as the early contingent of
week 2 athletes.

Our flight left on time and the adventure was beginning….Our trip of a
lifetime… as we embarked on our journey to the Yukon.

Well, actually we’re still in Halifax!! Our flight out of there was
cancelled before we even left Ch’town! A blunder on Air Canada’s part (
who could have guessed) – at least we got some meal vouchers, good press
coverage ( Steve snoozing while the athletes were interviewed around
him) and eventually when all hope was lost that we might be leaving
Halifax, a trip to the Delta Barrington in the middle of a storm.

The day was a bit of a disappointment to say the least – we knew day one
would be a long travel day. But after eighteen hours, we were supposed to
be in Whitehorse, not Halifax.

In true Canada Games Squash team style, our athletes were undaunted and
found many ways to entertain themselves, us, and the other passengers
(you do the math) during our long layover at the airport.

We are still having fun and still looking forward to Whitehorse.

Back to the airport to try again tomorrow.

Submitted by Michele LeClair

Canada Games!

On behalf of SquashPEI I wish all members of our team a safe, fun, and victorious time at the Canada Games. They will be heading to the Games at the end of this week. Competition will start Monday of next week. They will be part of the festivities at the closing ceremonies before heading home. Here are our team members:

Greg McQuaid, Chris Quinn, Matt MacNeill, Alex Quinn

Stephanie Charlton, Hilary Hansen, Danielle MacDonald, Whitney MacDonald

Steven Banks (coach)

Michele LeClair (manager)

Bob Aitken will also be participating as an official.

Please feel free to use the comments option to this post as a forum for sending your words of encouragement. I am sure that the team will be monitoring the blog and (hopefully) posting their own updates so we can keep up to date on their experiences. GO Team PEI! WOOHOO!

Squash PEI Newsletter: vol 24

Hi all, check out the latest Squash PEI Newsletter (Vol 24). This, and previously archived newsletters are available on the main Squash PEI website. Thanks Jeremy for your hard work on the newletter!

Did You Know? #2 (by DWL)

A measure of how bouncy a ball is, is the ratio (R) of the maximum height to which  a ball bounces to that from which it is initially dropped. According to the specifications for a “double yellow” squash ball, R=0.12 @ 23 degrees C (cold ball, i.e. room temperature), and 0.26-0.33 @ 45 degrees C (hot ball), when dropped from an initial height of 100 inches (254 cm). Basically, what this means is that a cold ball loses all but 12% of its kinetic energy (energy of motion) when it strikes the floor (this is also a good approximation as to how much energy is lost when the ball strikes a wall) . No wonder it is generally best to hit the ball before it strikes the back wall….the loss of kinetic energy means the ball will not bounce out very far!

The lost kinetic energy is mostly due to a production of thermal energy (heat) which warms up the ball (and the contacted floor, wall or racket). As the ball warms up, the rubber material of the ball becomes more “pliable”. The more pliable the ball becomes, the less kinetic energy it loses while being squished (i.e. deformation while striking a wall, floor, etc.). This is why R increases with temperature!

A “blue dot” ball, which is recommended for beginner players, is designed to be more bouncy(R=0.17 for a cold ball, and R=0.38 for a hot ball). This translates into a significantly higher bounce for easier play.

A tennis ball by comparison is much more bouncy. Dropped from a height of 100 inches, a tennis ball will bounce to a height of 53-58 inches (i.e. R=0.53-0.58). I can recall (to my embarassment) an incident when I first started playing squash. At the time, I was also playing tennis. So, one day, after playing squash, I went out onto a tennis court. I leaned over to bounce the tennis ball in preparation to serve. Not being used to the extra bounciness of the tennis ball, I threw down the ball with such force that it bounced up and hit me in the head!

It should be noted that, regardless of the ball temperature, the faster the ball is traveling when it strikes the floor, wall etc., the more it squishes, and hence the larger the fraction of kinetic energy lost (e.g. if a cold double yellow ball is dropped from 200 inches, the resulting measured R will be smaller than 0.12)

The fact that a pre-match warm up involves warming up the ball as well as the players is one of the unique features of squash as a racket sport.

Save your squash butt…

…for the Junior Fun-raiser!!

Starting Thursday

February 8th – 10th
at the Spa Total Fitness Centre and UPEI

Squash PEI will be hosting its annual squash tournament as a fundraiser for our junior programs.
This will be a “no frills” tournament as proceeds go to support our juniors but it will be sanctioned and there will be a Saturday night social

Entry Fee $20 (Members and non-members of Squash PEI)

Divisions
Mens ABCD
Women’s ABCD
Master’s/ Juniors (if sufficient #’s /indicate alternate Div.)

Register online www.squashpei.org or call Michele at 368-8612
Registration Deadline Friday, February 2 @ 5pm

Ready To Go!

The trails are lit, the ice is froze, the toboggan hill is slick, the hot tub is steamy, oh yeah and the squash courts are cleaned and ready for action this weekend in Mill River.  We are anxious to open our doors and have everyone in for the Mill River Invitational again this year.  With a 62 participant draw including a handful of mainlanders it should prove to be a great weekend of squash and winter excitement.  We also get the chance to inspire our juniors and maybe even learn a little from them as they go into their final preperations for Canada Games.  The social is planned for Saturday night in the lounge starring Dwayne Doiron but bring your instruments and your voices because there will be an open mike opportunity for those who have talents other than with a squash racquet.  That’s all for now, see you on the weekend.  Good luck and play safe.

Scotty G

Junior Atlantics in Halifax

PEI was well represented at this year’s Junior Atlantic Squash Championships in Halifax last weekend (Jan. 12-14); we had our entire Canada Games Squad playing as well as 3 of  Kenny’s Junior Development crew. PEI represented 11 of 48 participants, not bad for a small province. And we did great!!!!!!!!!!!! All of our CG squad came home with medals……..so did 2 of Kenny’s juniors – and the only one who got shut out played extremely well but lost out to two girls who are going to Whitehorse.

Results

Boys U19 Silver 3rd  – Greg McQuaid

Boys U17 Silver 1st – Chris Quinn / 3rd Greg McQuaid

Boys U17 Bronze 1st – Matt McNeil / 3rd Alex Quinn

Girls U19 Gold 1st – Steph Charlton / 3rd Hilary Hansen

Girls U17 Gold  3rd Danielle MacDonald

Girls U15 Gold 2nd – Whitney MacDonald

Girls U19 Gold 2nd Elizabeth MacKenna / 3rd Grace Sullivan

Honorable mention goes to Kellie McQuaid who battled hard but lost out on a medal to Daria from NFLD who will be going to Whitehorse.

Overall, the weekend was a huge success. We travelled as a team and stayed together at the Holiday Inn. We had a lot of laughs, a few scraps, and learned some valuable lessons (like, if you’re the one with the boys on the way home, there are better choices for lunch than Taco Bell!!). Also, if you have to fly to Whitehorse, watching “Snakes on a Plane” is not a good choice. Pillows are softer than oranges if you get hit in the head with one. Cinnamon Altoids are the best! And even though Alex can pick out a Hummer / Volvo / Audi / Beamer across two lanes of traffic in the mist, from the back seat,  he couldn’t recognize the Borden Police right before they decided we were going just a tad too fast for PEI (my foot was still on the toll highway where limit is 110kmh but the Honda was in Borden where 90 is acceptable!)………………. Despite our one small set back (and the carry over from Taco Bell) , it was an awesome trip. We have 8 great athletes going to Whitehorse and I’m proud to be associated with them. They were great ambassadors for PEI all weekend and will keep Squashpei on its toes for years to come!!

Michele

Safe Return

Good morning all.  We are all safely back in good ole PEI with minor aches and pains.  Yesterday we were able to defeat NWT for the finishing position of 9th.  Mikey B started slow but regained control of his match to go on and win 3-0 against a protege of former islander Spider Jones.  Scott pressed on in the second match to secure the victory for Team PEI by defeating Brooke Harker with a 3-0 score.  Peter Webb rounded out the tournament with a casual and very entertaining match against the NWT alternate Spider Jones.  In fact the officials were so taken back by on court antics and crowd support/slanderizing for Webb that they too were having difficulty following what was the purpose of the match.  In the end the Spider owned the Webb, gracefully shook his hand and wished everyone back in PEI a big hello.  Final standings from the top down were 1. PQ  2. AB  3. ON 1  4. MN  5. SK  6. NS  7. BC  8. ON2  9. PEI  10. NWT

 Overall the weekend was a success of what we set out to accomplish.  We were not embarrassed by any performances on court, met some new faces, and replayed some old matches with old friends.  Next for the boys is a couple days of rest before final preparations for Mill River.  Hope to see you all there.

from the desk of Scotty G

Day 2 in Niagra

Afternoon all.  Well after a couple bottles of white out and a bit of an upset we found ourselves facing off this morning against BC.  We were pumped last night when the draw showed NS as our opponent and they were relieved to see it changed back to BC later on. 

Peter was up first today, well on court anyway. He was inspired with the hometown support of the now legendary Parker Horton. He entered the court with some oldschool type shenanigans in his pocket and a vintage T shirt that only Mike Reid could appreciate.  Peter fought hard and long only to come up short with a 9-7 loss.  He was playing more aggresive and more consistant than ever seen back home.  The next two games were also an avid fight but both were lost with scores 9-4 a piece. 

 Scott was up next against a unorthodox type character who clearly  outclassed him and ran the odometer up on his court shoes.  Although Scott put up a heck of a battle, his formidable opponent ran away with the match like a hobo with a sweet potato pie. 

Mike’s match was clearly the sharpest preformance of the set.  His opponent was running everywhere to retrieve shots, unfortunatly Mike ran out of steam after the 2nd game.  The highlight was Mike hitting three crosscourt volley drops, dead nick.  That got us fired up, with cheering and hollaring, and all the other teams watching were rooting us on.

Cleary Team PEI has established a strong fan base from other provinces, some teams have even painted Go PEI Go on their cheeks.  Tomorrow we play NWT, coached by infamous Spider Jones, we’ll make him wish he hadn’t left the Island.  Thanks for the support from home and party on.