El Presidento (aka Lester) here. I am comfortably nestled in the heart of Banff National park. The other Provincial officials and the Squash Canada delegates have arrived for the annual AGM. I must say, wow what a beautiful setting in a beautiful country. There is a great sense of family being here. The meetings will start  at lunch time. Thanks to New Brunswick, little old PEI is twice as strong as most other Provinces! Let us not forget that our province has the highest ratio of squash players in Canada: One player for every thousand men women and children on the Island. (If Ontario had the same ratio they would have 13 thousand squash players!)

I am excited about being here. I promise I will represent you well and keep you updated with the highlights.

Pouring over the website I am awed. Cam you said you had a "little time to play around" ...well bye George you do it! On behalf of the squash players on PEI..thank you so very much!

The websight updated will be much more accessible to the committee and consequently it will be a wonderful communication tool. I cannot waite to show it off. Please use the discussion forum.

Thanks to Janice Roberts at UPEI centre. I believe the front wall is now fixed and we have another venue we can be proud of. Thank you Janice for coming through and doing a great job.

Going to end now.

Sincerely,

Lester

Well I am back on the Island now having learned a lot at the meeting.

Cam, did you realize I had a total of 4 proxy votes (Thank you to NB and NFLD), plus my 2 votes. Little PEI consequently matched Ontario in terms of voting privileges. Some interesting points came out of the discussion forum. I have listed some of these:

NWT squash tournaments start on Tuesday and conclude on Friday.  For a 10 person draw they would play a round robin with 2 pools of 5 then base on those results thy would have a feed in draw! (Guaranteed 5 matches!)

NWT has a full time professional that runs their program. 

Squash Canada has almost completed an extensive paper called ”Beyond the Nick” it concerns the long-term player development LTPD.  It is a holistic approach, taking the science available into the growth and development of an athlete. It takes all factors into account in order to correctly develop an athlete. (As an example, muscle development and puberty are different for males and females. These differences should be considered when training an athlete.) The draft copy will be available to coaches and interested parties on Monday (electronic version). Squash Canada needs to have feed back by July 9^{th in} order to have it completed and implemented in September.

The LTPD will be the spine/framework for the development of players.

 5 Provinces using the quick draw system. Excellent reviews: Saskatchewan will be using it too. Great to have NB join us. We will commence using it this season. Ontario has their own system but it has serious flaws. They will be reviewing their system.

 Coaching update: Cathy Lundbar gave a coaching update: The old NCCP system is being replaced. Supposedly their was confusion with the level 1 to 4 system. It was felt that some people would interpret level 1 as higher than 4 , which was not the case. The new levels are:

 Intro to squash, Intro to comp, and comp-dev. They are clamping down on the coaching level for CG coaches. Have to be level 3 certified. This year they are determined they will have no exemptions.  If there is to be an exemption process coaches must have Level 2 and level 3 training and 4 of the 6 multisport modules. They must also be certified within 6mnths after event or be disqualified from the next CG event.

 Cathy would like someone to write a manual for pre squash training (for Juniors 6 to 10 year olds).

 Conduct on Court.

A few cases of player misconduct that had occurred in 3 different jurisdictions and had only been picked up because the misconduct had been reported to Squash Canada. There is a process now being developed. All misconducts should be reported to SC. The player rep felt there are 2 sides to a conduct and huge inconsistencies and that the player should be given the opportunity to explain his side. This is to do with “Rule 17 “.

World Squash Council  (WSC) has stipulated that the 2 legitimate scoring systems recognized effective Aug 1^st:  PAR 15  then set 1 or 3, or,  PAR 11 win by 2.  (SC liked PAR 15 win by 2 and will send this recommendation to the WSC.

 Canada games clothing protocol ill be strictly enforced.  SC would like all Provinces to acknowledge this protocol.

Floating birth date that Squash Canada uses seen as positive and equitable policy.

Ranking system:

SC  is making changes to its ranking system: Ranking system with SC is flawed.  Top players don’t allow play in Masters’ events thereby not permitting challenges from younger players. Robin Clarke ranked 12^th in Canada, has not had opportunity to challenge some higher ranked players. This is affecting his standing and being a professional, his income. Have to play top player some don’t allow this play in senior circuits which preclude junior players from challenging them.

Alana is a WISPA player: WISPA would like more events posted around the country.

$4 000 minimum and $8 000 WISPA event would get most of top players in Canada

At National events there is currently a 45-55 maximum split (difference allowable) between men and women prize money. The reason for the difference is based on the depth of field, International depth and rankings of competing players. Alana , (female player rep.) would like an equal split 50-50.  Robin, male player rep is happy with the status quo.

Robin asked that all the provincial reports be distributed earlier. There are 11 PSA players. There are 12 Canadian events. Pan American games coming up Guadalajara.

Robin would like to see athletes being paid a bit more.

Open event at Nationals should be a WISPA style draw.  Presently, top 12 of the 16 get automatically accepted. There are 16 in the draw. The remaining 4 positions determined by playoff.

More restrictions: Top 2 Junior U19 can enter the playoff draw.

Robin also asked that the Nationals get moved to earlier in  April.  The PSA season would have just concluded and players could give their bodies a rest sooner. (Don’t have to train an extra month for Nationals.)

BC report the following:

Good year in BC: 21 singles tournaments and 4 doubles events. There is an event every weekend. 14 000 match results recorded, 10 000 the year before.  With these results fed into their ranking system, they have better draws often using 8 or 16 draw sizes with guaranteed 3 matches.  At times they have divisions named after the Roman gods. They have 2 200 members, and approx 8 000 players.

Alberta: 1700 members. May be lost 3 clubs (closed down). Otherwise good.

Saskatchewan: Proud to host the Masters. Had a funding increase from the Government.  Regina main club changed hands, using courts for fitness, reducing number of courts.

Squash Manitoba

Trevor Borland acknowledged as a great asset. New courts were being proposed at the university.

Ontario: Making changes to their ranking system. There is a change of governance. Clubs voted in membership executive.  They boast 75 000 players!

Quebec squash is really Montreal squash 80%, Quebec City club closing

More tournaments, but fewer entries per tournament.  Good government support.

Word Squash Federation: Represented on 5 continents, with 150 members countries. Now recognized as a ‘Core Sport’, therefore accepted as a commonwealth sport.  Previously had to lobby to get into the games.

There are 122 000 registered member, 2000 courts and 600 clubs across Canada.

SC is doing lots of research to aid player development. One interesting study was the  ‘7 year rule’

SC has been tracking the top 100 players over their career. Comparing this ranking data , there are rare exceptions, but most players hit their peak at year 7.  This begs the question as to the age which one turn pro. (15 to 17 in some countries vs. age 20 in Canada). There is a general accepted rule that it takes 10 years and 10 000 hours to be good a t anything.

Carded athletes receive money from the Government (through squash Canada). For every year carded, they qualify for their tuition expenses paid at a Canadian institution.

Many use squash in the USA and Canada as a means of getting accepted into the Ivy League schools such as Princeton and Harvard. Sadly there are no after university programs to keep players active and many drop out. 

Average GU13 game 19 minutes 9 to 29 minutes. Consider: Playing less games and having more skill based events.

National events biggest draw size comes from the 50 + group. This should be a warning that the bubble has moved and that we need to bring more juniors into the program.

The actual AGM was on Saturday.

A very proud moment, at the end of the meeting, was accepting an award on Gordon Lawlor’s behalf.  Gordon was recognized by squash Canada for his contribution to squash. 

“Gordie has been involved in the promotion and development of the game from the very beginning of our squash association.  He has been a coach, a mentor, a program coordinator, developer, and always, a great promoter of the sport.  He was also the premier player on PEI for over two decades and has represented PEI in regional and national events. He was recently awarded the ‘Player of the Decade’ award by Squash PEI - who could be more deserving?!”

The AGM minutes will be posted on the Squash Canada website. Of note there was an item brought forward by Moi (thanks to Samantha and Derek Lawther) regarding squash balls. The gist of it is: From the research that Sam had done, it is clear that some divisions in squash could not get the ball warm enough to perform at the optimum and intended temperature.  This handicaps their play. Based on this squash Canada could investigate this further (funding may be available) and make suggestions or recommendations to the provinces for future tournaments. Better game with longer rallies means an improved game of squash.

Submitted by Lester Jinks.