Can you feel it? There’s a squash revolution happening in Ontario high schools and young leaders like Ottawa’s Max Shewchenko are leading the charge. Max is one of 10 recipients of the Squash Ontario Student Leadership Bursary to help introduce the sport to students in his high school. Their mission is to each bring a team to the Jim Mason Cup High School Team Tournament, April 17-18 in Toronto. Read below for Max’s journey with the Hillcrest Hawks.
In the coming weeks we will be posting regular updates on other schools from around the province. Follow Squash Ontario's Instagram page for updates!
Max Shewchenko and the Hillcrest Hawks
"It was quite difficult to promote squash in my school because barely anyone knew how the game was played. But, a few of my close friends have watched me play at local tournaments and they showed interest in learning how to play. They shared their interest with other friends and it grew from there until we got our team of seven.
The Jim Mason Cup is in Toronto (April 17-18) which is quite far away from Ottawa, so I used this as motivation for my team. It's more than just a tournament for us -- it will be a long lasting memory and an amazing road trip experience. We currently have a full team of seven with other students interested if we need backup.
Getting our team started has been easy, yet challenging; I am grateful for all the encouragement and positivity I've been receiving from Hillcrest and Squash Ontario.
We have already had several practices and they have been a great success. We use 2 courts at the Ottawa Athletic Club, which is about a 15 minute walk from our school. Ian Woodhead, our squash coach, and I will each be on different courts. My court focuses on accuracy (drives, drops, practicing specific shots) and Ian’s court focuses on technique and movement. During the other half of the lesson we practice rallies and match play. I, or Ian, will jump on court if we see something that could be improved. At the end of the practice, we play 3 quarter court and talk about the highlights of the practice.
There is an indescribable feeling when the team is at practice. Everyone is so positive and happy to play, and everyone gets along very well. We always make sure having fun is above everything else. This type of environment is great for improvement, and you can already see things coming together at such an early stage. We look forward to what this squash season will bring, and I'm sure we will have many good stories by the end of the season.”
- Max Shewchenko, Hillcrest Hawks Student Squash leader
THE VISION
Squash Ontario has launched Operation OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) with the goal of having squash achieve full OFSAA status by 2022.
THE PURPOSE
This initiative will be the catalyst for the greatest participation increase in Squash Ontario history and will be a critical springboard to feed our existing programs and member clubs. Operation OFSAA aims to provide every high school student in the province with access to the sport of squash -- through their schools -- 2022. OFSAA currently oversees more than 650,000 high school student athletes competing across 41 sports. We are aiming to have squash achieve full OFSAA status by 2022, which will change the landscape of our sport. This is an ambitious project which will require us to more than double the number of schools currently participating, while also diversifying gender and regional representation.