Our final installment of the 2017-18 Black Knight Player of the Month features four athletes who finished the season by bringing national championships home to Ontario to cap off another amazing season by the province as a whole. Congratulations to Lorraine Tetreault, David Sly, Charlotte Orcutt and James Flynn for being some of the best talent Team Ontario has to offer.
Lorraine Tetreault, back after a hiatus from competitive play returned to the courts with a bang, capturing both the Ontario and Canadian 60+ women’s championships in less then a month. Tetreault, who plays under the tuteledge of Squash Ontario Hall of Famer Heather Wallace at Goodlife Queensview, placed 3rd in the W55+ Ontario Open but was the highest finishing 60+ female and duplicated the feat at the Canadian Nationals In Calgary. We are thrilled to have Lorraine back as one of many all-star female masters Ontario currently boasts. Runner-up for the award goes to Seanna Keating of the Toronto Lawn, who continues to defy mother time and won the 2018 PBL Insurance Ontario Open as the oldest player in the draw and Stephanie Edmison who, along with partner Arjun Gupta shocked the doubles world by winning the 2018 Canadian Mixed Championships as heavy underdogs. Honorable mentions go to Elka Markus (W55+ Ontario Champion), the team of Lindsay Hermer-Bell and Sandra Shaw (W60+ Canadian Champions), Leslie Freeman (W60+ Canadian Mixed Doubles Champion), Cathy Tuckwell (W55+ Mixed Doubles Champion), and Caro Sambrook (W50+ Mixed Doubles Champion).
David Sly from Kingston is our BK Senior Male Player of the Month after taking home Ontario’s only singles national title of the season. Sly, who continues to age like a fine wine, put on one of the best performances of his career en route to capturing the 2018 Canadian Men’s 50+ title by defeating fellow Ontarian and two-time world champion Willie Hosey. Sly edges out former BK player of the month Scott Dulmage who captured a classic Canadian double-double with the M45+ (with no help from boat anchor partner Eric Baldwin) as well as the Mixed 40+ title and Cinderella story Arjun Gupta, who along with partner Steph Edmison, wins his first national tile since U13 singles by capturing the Canadian Open Mixed. Honourable mentions go to our many other deserving national doubles champions David Potter/Chris Wheeler (M70+), Brian Murray (M65+ ), Sean McDonough (M60+), Alan Hunt/Willie Hosey (M55+), Bob Ferguson (55+ Mixed), Steve Hisey (M60+ Mixed).
On the junior side, two of our highest achieving females continued to shine to close out the season with U17 National Junior Champion Charlotte Orcutt edging out U15 National Junior Champion Molly Chadwick. Orcutt gets the nod with her recent Pan-Am Mixed Doubles Silver Medal (partner James Flynn) last week in Brazil and also with a narrow runner-up finish in the PBL Insurance Ontario Open Senior Champs in April. Chadwick won her second national title as the #2 seed at Mayfair Lakeshore’s junior championships with an amazing performance over rival Sarah Cao and also lost in the final of the Performance Acura Ontario Junior Open’s U17 division despite being only 14. Honorable mentions for the award go to U11 National Champion Keira Hickox of Elora, and our junior girls provincial champions Maya Askar (U11), Ananya Maheshwari (U13), Iman Shaheen (U15), Brianna Jefferson (U17), and Sydney Maxwell (U19). Special shout out also goes to Gabby Waite who was runner up in both the U13 Ontario Junior Open and wore the slipper as a 5/8 seed while making it to the finals of the U13 national championships.
On the junior men’s side, the prophecy was finally realized as one of the top players in recent history James Flynn captured his elusive first National Junior Title in the U19 division in April. Flynn preceded that title by winning the U19 Ontario Junior Open and followed it up by bringing home Pan-Am team junior boys team Gold last week, silver in the mixed doubles and the bronze in the individual men’s event. James’ successes this recent period can be attributed to a very special cohort he leads with fellow national junior team members competing in India later this month: George Crowne, Julien Gosset, Boys U19 runner-up Liam Marrison and fellow Pan-Am team Gold medalist Elliott Hunt. Honorable mentions for this award go to Ontario Junior Open champions Ali Shalaby (U17), Noah Crawford (U15 – 12-10 in the 5th over Alex Yuzpe), Jacob Marrison (U13 as a 3/4 seed), and Arham Izhar (U11 and also the U11 national finalist). Special mention also goes to U17 Ontario and National Runner-up Nikhil Ismail.
Black Knight and Squash Ontario congratulate all of our amazing junior, senior and male and female athletes on another award winning season. Have a great summer to all and we look forward to celebrating next year’s champions soon!