Each Tuesday and Thursday night for the last two years, a group of students have gotten together at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center to take some time off from homework and exercise. 

What began as a few friends relaxing developed into the squash club, an informal group of people who enjoyed the sport. After finding other students who had just as much fun playing the sport, Rohan Lal ’17 and Wit Gan ’16, the president and vice president of the club, respectively, decided to take it up a notch. 

Squash is the newest club sports team at Brandeis. This year was the team’s first in competitive play and it played in five matches as part of the College Squash Association. 

As part of the conference the team was able to play against some tough competition, including Harvard University, Tufts University and Colby College. 

The squash season runs from October through February, and the squad just finished its preliminary season with losses to Bard College and Vassar College at a tournament hosted at Vassar on Jan. 31. 

The squad faces big challenges as the CSA features varsity teams from Division I and Division III, as well as club teams like Brandeis. Additionally, there are not yet enough players to fill both an entire men’s and women’s roster, so both men and women play for Brandeis in the men’s division, but their opponents’ teams are made up entirely of men. 

An even bigger obstacle facing the new team is that some of the schools in the region actively recruit high school players onto their teams. Most of the best players come from countries outside of America, and schools are aggressively reaching out to these players. 

The top teams in the nation are the ones that are naturally most effective at recruiting. 

The popularity of the sport has grown nationally and globally, as well as within the Brandeis community.

Gan remarked, “Squash is an up-and-coming sport. It almost even made the Olympics ... It is also such a healthy sport, you can burn thousands of calories in only an hour of playing.” 

The team has made great strides since last year, when it was a simply a club of students who got together twice a week to play a game and hang out. Last spring, it hired its own coach, Joe McManus, who comes with an established pedigree as the coach at Tufts. 

The team’s roster has also doubled in size, with about 20 players coming to practice every week. 

While the squad was content with its debut season, it still has a lot to improve on in the coming years. It is focused on gaining more players in order to be more competitive. On his future goals, Lal  remarked that the goal for next season is to “be able to make it to nationals.” 

To qualify, the team would have  had to play at least eight matches, which was difficult with their small roster and lack of experience. 

Gan  hopes that next season the team will be able to play at an annual tournament at the University of Minnesota which would give it further exposure.  

The team is optimistic that it will be able to accomplish its goals for the coming years. 

Its determination will not quit with the competitive portion of the season now being complete. Even though the competitive portion of the season has concluded, the team still practices year round.