Smith Squash Team Enjoys Squash Ball Myofascial Realease!

Stretching and flexibility exercises cannot get to all of a college squash player’s tight and sore areas.  Experienced physical therapists have been using tennis balls to release client’s trigger points for years – now they are recommending squash balls and the Smith College Squash Team is giving it a try!

Smith Squash Racketlon Results!

On Saturday, October 18th 16 Smith College students  (and 1 alum in the Pro Division)  showed up for the 2008 Smith College Racketlon – and everyone had a great time playing ping-pong, badminton, squash and tennis at Smith College’s great indoor faciltities!

Team 1 (Julia, Su, Sarah, Jess) won three of the four disciplines to win the tournament (56-39; 15-5,15-8,11-15,15-11;  so +17) in the final against Team 3 (Mercedes, Jasmine, Guyman, Shanita).  In the Pro Division Englander Andy Stenson narrowly beat local Smith Alum Erin Robson, losing to her in squash (15-11, 15-2, 12-15, ret.), before succumbing to host Coach Tim Bacon in a closely fought  final (5-15, 15-5, 15-4, 11-15; +7).

Smith Racketlon Tournament T-Shirt

All participants got a very cool t-shirt!  Contact Tim if you would like to purchase one at the cost price of $7.50.

You can watch some of the play on the Smith Squash YouTube TV Channel:

Grades are Higher if you Play Squash!

The Department of Athletics announced the academic results of Smith College’s intercollegiate athletes today – and once again athlete GPAs are higher than the average student.  Why?  “If you want something done give it to a busy person”!.  What we do not see mentioned is our Captain Alice Reznickova’s perfect 4.0 GPA:) A good grade at a top school – way to go!

ACADEMIC/ATHLETIC SUCCESSES

2007-2008

3.31 GPA Average of 231 Athletes

3.45 GPA Average of 28 Multi-Sport Athletes

82 (35%) Athletes with a GPA of 3.5 or higher (Avg. GPA 3.72)

37 (16%) Athletes as First Group Scholars (Avg. GPA 3.77)

Students whose records for the previous year include at least 28 credits of A- or better and who have

no grades below B-; those named generally represent the top 5% of the class.

118 (51%) Athletes on the Dean’s List (Avg. GPA 3.56)

The Dean’s List each year consists of students whose course work for the previous academic year

averaged 3.333 or above and included at least 24 credits for traditional aged undergraduates or 16

credits for Ada Comstock Scholars.

13 Seven Sisters Scholar Athletes

These athletes must be seniors with a GPA of 3.5 or higher, have participated in a Seven Sisters

Championship and have been a varsity athlete for 3 years. Seven Sisters sports include basketball,

crew, cross country, field hockey, lacrosse, squash, swimming & diving, tennis and volleyball.

National Scholar Athletes

Eliza Bryant, Crew

Lauren Carpenter, Crew

Alison Cloutier, Cross Country

Anna Cressotti, Cross Country

Emilie Lerner, Crew

Dana Lindsey, Crew

Judy Liu, Squash

Kim Meskimen, Equestrian

Huong Nguyen, Squash

Chantel Pheiffer, Crew

Kimberly Pucher, Crew

Maria-Fatima Santos, Crew

Emily Taylor, Crew

Briana Tomboulian, Crew

Margaret Woodman-Russell, Crew

Smith Intramural Racketlon This Saturday, Oct. 18!

What is Racketlon?

Racketlon is a sport which combines (in order of racquet size) table-tennis, badminton, squash, and tennis in a single match: one game of each to 21 pts. (point-a-rally scoring), the person who wins the most points over the four games wins the match!

How good do I have to be to play in this tournament?

The answer is” “Not very good at all!”. If you have any experience in any of the four major racquet sports, you can team up with 2-3 others and enter as a team (if you show up at 10 a.m. on Saturday we will place you on an appropriate, compatible team). If you have a little experience you can also enter the Individual event (A for experienced, B for recreational, and C for novices)!

What time will I play on Saturday?

All participants should show up at 10:00 a.m. (or a little before to warm-up) and will play their first match at 10:15, 10:30, or 10:45. The second and third matches will take place (you will be able to figure out the exact time from the draw when it is posted at 10:15) between 12 and 5 (30 minutes per match).

When can I practice and learn the rules?

Courts are reserved for practice this Wednesday evening (Oct. 15th) from 7-8:30 p.m. – there will be a little mini-instructional and rules clinic for each sport – show up at the squash courts to start! Here is a link to the International Racketlon Federation Rules.

How do I register?

Cost will be $5 for students and $15 for faculty/staff (proceeds to Smith Squash Travel Fund) and will include a t-shirt (for the first 25 entries only) and balls, and equipment loan if necessary. Contact Smith Squash Coach Tim Bacon to sign up: tbacon@smith.edu or 413-585-2715.

***Update: 12 registrations as of 12:08 a.m. EST***

*** Update 18 registrations as of 12:34 a.m. , Oct. 17, 2008 ***

Here is a picture of the cool tournament tee:

Smith Racketlon Tournament T-Shirt

Here are some of the skills you need:

Here is a video of Smith Coach Tim Bacon (#22 World Doubles Ranking) competing in the English Open Racketlon Mixed Doubles with his Partner Shona Kerr (#11 Singles, #22 Doubles), Head Coach of Squash at Wesleyan University.

Fall Break – Watch Some World Champion Squash to Stay Sharp!

Only four of the Smith College Squash team are staying on campus during the beautifully sunny and warm (average temp in the 70’s!) Fall Recess in Northampton.  Everyone else will be on the road – but if they have their Iphones or laptops and internet access they can watch a great YouTube match played recently between current world #1 Nicol David from Malaysia and former 5-time World Champ Sarah Fitzgerald from Australia.

We do not have any great local female squash in Northampton, so this is a wonderful opportunity to keep the squash neurons going (and yes – we know that sport imagery improves actual sport performance).

We will not give away the result, but note that Sarah is now 40 to Nicol’s 25, and it is hoped that  the Smith Squash Team are all playing 20 years from now (imagine how good they will be).

Smith Squash “Finds” Mel Gibson on Set of New Film in Northampton

It sometimes seems that Smith College and Northampton, MA are at the center of the universe. Coach Tim Bacon was working away in his office yesterday, when one of the film crew on the set of Mel Gibson’s new film Edge of Darkness called up looking for squash courts where the crew could play (he was English).

Northampton is a popular destination for Hollywood, and Gibson has set up steps away from the Calvin Theatre where both the Black Crowes and Lindsey Buckingham are playing next week, steps away from the new Urban Outfitters location. Why Northampton?  The U.S.’ #1 Small Arts Town has easy access to the Five College’s 25,000 plus students (including 10,000 boys for those high school girls looking at Smith College, the nation’s best women’s college).

So the Smith Squash Team set off on a training run to find Mel Gibson and ask him about the Edge of Darkness – and perhaps to get his autograph…

From the Australian Rainforest: JSA Captain Alice “Red” Reznickova

One of the great things about Smith College and the Smith Squash Team is that student-athletes are encouraged to take part in the junior semester or year abroad program to enrich their academic and social experience at College.  Last year senior Jess MacLeod was in London and worked ferociously on the squash game – and has come back a much improved player.  This year Liz hughes is in Copenhagen, and today co-captain Alice Reznickova writes the team on the eve of the start of their season (you can try and guess which one she is in the picture):

Hi Team,

most of you know me, for those who do not – my name is Alice UnpronouncableEasternEuropeanLastNameWithManyAccents and if you look at last years pictures, I am the one with the unique (and beautiful) haircolor (no, I have not been isnpired by Run, Lola, Run nor by The Fifth Element:)) I am also the Captain Abroad – I am spending my semester in Down Under (=Australia!), living, learning and laboring (just to get the 3xL) in a rainforest near Cairns. I can assure you I will come home as a tough woman – life here is like Survival of the Fittest, every day is a new adventure and apparently we can die of one hundred million different things including killer plant and animals (the most venomous snakes are our BFFs – one black red-bellied watched a movie with us yesterday and a four-meter python lied across the path to my cabin two days ago), weather (Queensland has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world) and than the more usual things like dehydration, drowning, falling from a liana while swinging like a tarzan, bug bite, angry farmer/miner encounter on our usual Saturday_Night_Pub_Visit, bleeding to death (sometimes I take leeches of my legs in dozens), lack of sleep or  peanutbuttershock (that happened today, there was no more peanut butter left for entire 24 hours!). Other than that, it feels like 14 weeks long summer vacations and it is the best experience I have had in my entire life, so if you are not old yet (like Jess!) and thinking of going abroad, I encourage you to check out www.fieldstudies.org (end of advertisement).

So, after a long introduction, I am finally coming to the main part of this email – your season is starting and I wanted to wish you all good luck with balancing academics, personal life and athletics. Do not forget that improvement is more important than victory and you’ll be fine on the Smith Squash team. Being a part of a team is fun – and I truly miss it – and miss you all. If you ever have any concerns/questions, do not hesitate to turn to me (I am available on this email most of the time, yes, we DO have internet in the middle of rainforest)

Again – good luck and have fun!
(I am off to make some vegan burgers after “running” up and down a Pyramid mountain – hike level “Difficult”, two ways for extremely fit people – 3 hours. We were back in 2 hours 15 minutes and jumped to a lake in our clothes… As I said, life here is fun )

Alice

Alice vs. Wesleyan @ Smith College - February 2008