The game of squash thrives when there is growth at the local and regional levels. Squash Ontario’s Community Awards program was created by the Board of Directors to recognize the contributions made by volunteers, corporations, officials, coaches and players at all levels of the game.
Please join us in celebrating and thanking the following recipients of 2022-2023 Outstanding Achievement Award:
Kitt Hanley
Kitt (left) with Kevin Smith from the Town of Ajax
Kitt is extremely passionate about squash with most focus on growing the sport for women and juniors. Currently working at three GTA clubs, she is always working towards bringing in new people to the sport. This includes being the only person to put two different Women's D T&D teams in the last few years from each club and will be adding another one from Ajax. Also, while having her first Men’s T&D League last year. In addition to traditional Club events, Kitt leads a variety of summer camps at each location. A highlight of this was introducing squash to Ajax's first Girls Only Sports Camp - 30 girls aged 7 to 17 yrs. benefitted from Kitt's squash journey and had the opportunity to play. Also, this summer, Kitt developed a Doubles Interleague and will be forming an ODSL team for the fall between Pickering and Mayfair Parkway. Kitt continually works at bringing more women into the sport offering additional Women’s Clinics and helped run the 2023 Canadian Women's Open at Brookfield Place. Amongst all of Kitt's energy and passion to grow the game, she still continues to play regularly and will be participating in the upcoming Women’s Team Master's in Waterloo.
Rob Lefcoe
Rob (right) with Head Pro Jim Paton from the Granite Club
Rob has been coaching squash for over 40 years now and is still active coaching at the Granite and Cricket Club 4 days per week. Rob is on court 5 days per week as he runs 10 weeks of summer camps at the Granite. The most impressive thing is that Rob still maintains the highest level of passion and love of coaching. The juniors like his dry sense of humour as he mentors them and genuinely wants to help them learn and improve their squash. I [Jim Paton] met Rob when he was the Head Pro for years at the Toronto Lawn and has a spotless record of coaching with the highest level of professionalism.
Howard (centre) with Diana Dawson-Young and Wayne DeRyck from the Town of Aurora
Howard Seto
Howard has been the Squash Pro at Club Aurora Fitness Centre, Town of Aurora for over 10 years. Since then, Howard has been instrumental in running and building our squash programs throughout our community. Howard is well known and well liked by all who know him. Howard has been involved in running and expanding our House Leagues and our Learn to play programs. Needless to say, our leagues are jammed packed and our Learn to Play has expanded to ages 8 years and up. Recently, Club Aurora expanded its Learn to Play to offer a Women's only section. Howard has spent endless hours (unpaid) organizing and promoting the game of squash. His passion and dedication over his 25+ years as a Squash Pro/Player has been a key factor in Club Aurora's overall success. We would like to recognize Howard Seto for his passion and dedication to advancing the game of squash. Congratulations Howard!
The Special Achievement Award is Presented to those who have made very significant contributions to the game of squash, not only in Ontario but also on a national and international basis. It is Squash Ontario’s highest and most prestigious honour.
Gordon Campbell
Gordon (far right) pictured in 2019 with the Squash Ontario Board of Directors.
After six year’s dedicating his time to serve on the Squash Ontario Board of Directors, Gordon Campbell’s term is coming to an end at this year’s Annual General Meeting. During his time on the Board, Gordon served for two years as a Director at Large, two years as the Vice President, Finance, and his last two years as the President. Gordon was a valuable resource to the Board with his experience as COO, CEO, Advisor and Consultant of several corporations varying in size. He also volunteers in the Golf community serving on committees for Golf Canada. Gordon was a huge support to the Board and staff through both an Executive Director change in 2020 and serving on our COVID-19 Task Force from 2020-2022. His support and guidance through both of these big changes was invaluable. We wish him the best of luck in his future volunteering endeavours as we know he will continue to donate his time. Thank you, Gordon, for serving Squash Ontario for six years!