Alex Stait will be recognized as the 2018 United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee coach of the year on Thursday, October 10, during the 2019 FS Investments U.S Open Squash Championships.

Stait is Team USA’s junior men’s head coach. He served as the assistant coach from 2015 to 2017 before becoming the head coach. In 2018 at the Men’s World Junior Team Championships in Chennai, India, the team was seeded eight but reached the semis to finish third. It was just the second time in Team USA history that a men’s junior team medaled at the tournament.

Stait, who turns forty in November, has served in many regional and national capacities including as the head regional coach for Pennsylvania, as a tournament director and as an instructor for US Squash’s coaching certification program. Since 2013 he has been the head coach at Agnes Irwin School. In 2018 he led Irwins to their first league title since 1995 and in the last two seasons he has guided the Owls to second-place finishes at the High School Nationals.

From Gloucestershire, England, Stait reached world No. 53. In 2017 he captured the men’s 35+ division at the National Singles. Stait is also a prominent doubles player. The left-waller has partnered with Ed Garno with much recent success. They have taken the Philadelphia doubles title the past four years, the last three William White invitational titles and in 2018 they won the National Doubles. In 2017 he also reached the semis of the World Doubles, losing 15-14 in the fifth for a slot in the finals.

Since 1998, the USOPC National Coach of the Year has honored the best squash coaches at the highest levels of the game. Last year’s honoree was Mike Way of Harvard. Stait will be honored on the ASB Glasscourt on the evening of October 10. Purchase tickets here.

The eighteenth-annual World Squash Day on October 12  will celebrated in style at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships. The theme of this year’s World Squash Day is The Big Hit: an attempt to get as many people as possible to play squash on the 12th.

US Squash will be facilitating thousands of people in that effort. The finals of the men’s and women’s draws at the U.S. Open and the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame luncheon and induction ceremony will be the centerpieces of an exciting day at Drexel’s Daskalaskis Athletic Center. Downstairs on the Kline & Specter Courts, the 2019 U.S. Skills Levels Championship will be in full swing.

In addition, the U.S. will bristle with competitive squash play: there are junior tournaments scheduled in Greenwich, CT, Baltimore, MD, Whippany, NJ and San Francisco, CA; and a professional women’s doubles tournament, the NBCC LA Open in Los Angeles.

The Big Hit hopes to encourage clubs to offer introductory sessions and then to follow up with mentoring sessions to make newcomers feel welcome and keen to come back for more. World Squash Day hopes that the Big Hit will help the game reach a new target of attracting one million new players to the sport before 2030.

The U.S. Open is also promoting watch parties. Around the world, clubs are encouraged to host clinics and exhibitions wrapped around tuning into the Open finals on SquashTV.

“After the disappointment of having squash denied a place in the Olympics, it’s time we changed the negative narrative and started talking up all the wonderful, positive things that make our sport so special,” said WSD founder Alan Thatcher. “Squash is the fastest growing sport in America, which is now the biggest nation for participation with around 1.5 million active players. Squash is the ideal athletic endeavor for the time-conscious modern lifestyle. In forty minutes on court you will enjoy a huge, high-intensity work-out, with full cardiovascular benefits. You will burn close to 1,000 calories and the endorphins released into your bloodstream will give you that perfect, healthy high. Squash is also great fun, a physical and mental challenge with a group of opponents who will quite likely end up as friends for life.”

WSD was originally launched in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in the U.S. Many squash players died in the attacks. One notable person was Derek Sword, an avid twenty-nine year old squash player from Scotland who played at the New York Athletic Club. He worked as an equity sales analyst on the 89th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He had just gotten engaged ten days before the attacks.

To honor Sword, a group of New York and British friends hosted a memorial match in London in January 2002 which led to the creation of World Squash Day. Each year since 2002, WSD events have taken place across the globe—exhibitions, clinics, publicity stunts, tournaments—that expose the game to new people and sustain and deepen a love of the game for those already involved.

“The early years involved matches in New York, London and Edinburgh,” said Thatcher.” Among the supporters were Peter Nicol and Martin Heath, who were junior team-mates of Derek’s back home in Scotland. Both played in some very special events during those early years, and it is great to see them having such an impact with their coaching in North America. Fittingly, Peter is involved in a new squash project in Manhattan and I hope they will be doing something special for World Squash Day.”

Special WSD T-shirts are available in North America from Squash Republic here.

For more information visit worldsquashday.net.

Molly Pierce will be awarded the Achievement Bowl during Women in Sports Day at the FS Investments U.S. Open Wednesday October 9 at Drexel University. Pierce is one of the most accomplished leaders in U.S. squash history.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Pierce has been involved in squash for decades. A major focus has been SquashSmarts, Philadelphia’s urban squash program. She has served on the board of SquashSmarts for nineteen years, most recently serving as the board’s secretary and chair of governance. Since 2001 she has been a weekly mentor for children at SquashSmarts. She has also provided major financial support for the program.

Pierce has been a board member of SquashBusters, Boston’s urban squash program, and for five years served as president of the Philadelphia district squash association. She is an active tournament director, member of US Squash’s doubles committee, captain of Team USA for the Can-Am Cup, a board member for the Cynwyd Club and Germantown Cricket Club and an avid supporter and participant in local, regional and national tournaments. Along with her many squash-playing siblings, Pierce has been a significant philanthropic force in squash. The family bought and donated the house in Philadelphia that served as headquarters for US Squash for twenty years and recently made a leadership gift for the US Squash Arlen Specter Center.

On the court, Pierce is an exceptional and avid doubles player. An eight-time national doubles champion, she won the women’s 40+ title in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2002 with Jody Law; the mixed 50+ with Jamie Heldring in 2010; the women’s 50+ in 2012 with Tracy Greer; and the women’s 60+ in 2018 with Jody Law.

The Achievement Bowl is US Squash’s oldest award. Since 1955 it has been given out annually to a woman who has made notable and profound contributions to the advancement of squash. Last year’s recipient was Julieanne Harris.

Pierce will be acknowledged during a special reception from 5-6pm courtside prior to evening matches. Purchase tickets for Women in Sports Day on www.usopensquash.com/tickets.

Pre-event online sales are available NOW through SEPTEMBER 15, 2019. Place your order today here.

Delivery and pick-up options are available; items ordered by September 15 will be shipped to an address provided by September 25 or customers can pick-up items on site at the U.S. Open Merchandise Booth. Please indicate the preferred option during checkout.

Support the USA! Any item can include a USA Flag for additional $5.00; see option while checking out.

If you have any questions, please email Kenny at [email protected].

Jay Nelson will be awarded the 2019 Robert W. Callahan Men’s Sportsmanship Award at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open.

The ceremony will be on Tuesday, October 8, as a part of the sixth-annual Character in Sports Day. Purchase tickets here.

Jay Nelson is a legendary masters player. He played squash at Andover and Harvard and for the the last half century has been a mainstay of squash in New York City. Inducted into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame in 2013, Nelson has won thirty-one titles at the National Singles tournament. In hardball, Nelson won the U.S. national men’s 45+ in 1989 and 1990 and the 50+ in 1993 and 1995; in softball the 40+ in 1984 and 1985; the 45+ in 1987 and 1988; the 50+ from 1992 through 1996; the 55+ from 1997 through 2001; the 60+ in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006; the 65+ in 2007 through 2011; the 70+ in 2012 and 2016; and the 75+ in 2017 and 2019.

He is renowned as an example of sportsmanship. He was awarded NY Squash’s Eddie Standing Trophy in 1974 for exceptional sportsmanship and throughout his decades in the game has emphasized fair play and courtesy.

Character in Sports Day calls attention to the central importance of sportsmanship in squash. It welcomes all past recipients of national squash sportsmanship awards including the Callahan, Feron’s Wedgwood, the DeRoy (for junior players), the Skillman and Richey (collegiate individual awards) and the Sloane and Chaffee (team awards). In 2014 US Squash created the Robert W. Callahan Sportsmanship Award. Previous winners include Ed Chilton, Rich Sheppard, Richard Chin, Mark Talbott and Chris Spahr.

Bob Callahan was the men’s coach at Princeton for thirty-two years before he died in January 2015 at the age of fifty-nine. His teams won three national titles and more Skillman Awards than any other college in the nation. He founded the world’s oldest squash summer camp and in 1998 directed the World Junior Men’s Championship. He was inducted into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame in the class of 2011.