Build Up To The Season: Boys’ Varsity Squash
By ESTHER CHAE, EVAN CHEN, JUNE KOH, LYDIA KUHNERT, and SERENA YUE
Amy Lin / The Exonian
With only a few months until Big Red dominates the squash court, the boys’ varsity team prepares for yet another great season. This year’s captains, senior Byran Huang and upper Max Liu have been hard at work preparing an excellent training schedule for the team.
“Most of the top players are [using Choice Format] this term in order to get more time on court, especially after classes and on Wednesdays and Saturdays,” said Liu. “We’re also running captain’s practices twice a week.”
“Our training is quite rigorous. It’s very planned out and we’re getting a few outside professionals to help us with improving our game and our strategy. And particularly our fitness and physique going into the season,” said Huang. “It’s different every day. It’s either drills or fitness, but it’s all working on our mechanics and our fitness so we can play through those matches and not get tired out.”
With a daily training schedule, about an hour and a half to two hours are reserved for the team’s improvement. Often, the team will run together through the woods or spend time drilling minute points - making sure every aspect of their game is at the highest level possible.
“We usually do an hour of hitting, maybe some drills like rotating rails, boast drives, et cetera,” said prep Matias Yau. “And then we maybe do work on some niche stuff, like volley drops, drop shots, and then we go do fitness and conditioning.”
The team itself has also responded well—Yau appreciates the work: “I feel like I’m definitely improving, and we as a team are definitely improving.” Although squash is a single-player sport, the varsity team embodies a close-knit team atmosphere.
“I think I’m improving because I go to the courts around five times a week and I train with my peers like Matias,” agreed lower Ian Lanning. “It’s very good. We do drills together and it helps us both improve.”
The team hopes to enter strong into High School Nationals. “I’m looking forward to high school nationals,” said Lanning, “because every year we go to Philadelphia and play in the nationals, and we win a lot of matches. And this year, hopefully, we will be in D1 instead of D2.” Considering the synergy and optimism from the team, they are not far from reaching their goal.
“I think the team has a lot of potential this year,” said Huang. “I think we have a fantastic lineup of new squash players. You know, I’m super happy that they all decided to come to Exeter and really play. For the team, they’re all playing almost every day, and I’m super proud of the team for doing that. We’re all working very hard, even during this preseason time to do the best we can. I’m super excited.”
“I’d like to give a shout-out to all the preps, specifically Evan, Andrew, Matias,” said Liu. “I think they give a lot of energy and positivity to the team, and they have a real desire to work harder and push our team to its best.”
With a strong lineup and another unanimous shoutout to lower Sid Narang from his teammates, Big Red is ramping up for yet another triumphant squash season this winter.
