On April 19th, Ridley College celebrated the opening of the new Jack Aylott Squash Centre five-court facility with Ridley's squash community, which consisted of a group of alumni, parents, faculty and current Ridley squash players, filled with excitement about the future of the game at Ridley.
Jack Aylott was the Games Master at Ridley from 1951 - 1978 and was highly respected both at the school and in the entire squash community. He was a formidable player in his own right, and won the Squash Rackets Association Championship, which was essentially the World Championship at that time, in singles and doubles in the 1930s. Under Jack's tutelage and followed by Sandy Peters and Kerry Martin (all three members of the Jesters Club) and now Dave Forgeron, Ridley has produced our fair share of top Canadian squash athletes over the school's history.
In addition to a ribbon cutting and speeches, Tim Griffin, who is a Ridley grad and the lead fundraiser for this project, had a ceremonial first game against Ridley's current number one squash player and GU17 Canadian team competitor, Caitlin Ng. They also featured two showcase matches, one featuring Caitlin and Samantha Cornett and the other between Nick Sachvie and Reiko Peter.
“It is truly a remarkable space that we are immensely proud of and grateful to the Ridley community for their support of and bringing this project to life.” - Kory Lippert, Ridley College.
The future of squash at Ridley looks bright! Already, the new courts have attracted attention and interest from students who would not normally have squash on their radar.
It’s always a great day when new squash courts open up in Ontario!
