December 4, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Young GFS squash squad felled by Fords
by TOM UTESCHER

In an unusually early squash season opener, the racquetmen of Germantown Friends hosted Haverford School last Monday (Nov. 24) at the Germantown Cricket Club.

The experienced Haverford squad, which is expected to be a strong contender for the Inter-Ac League title this winter, posted a 7-0 victory over a young GFS franchise that is starting the season in a rebuilding mode after losing a good group of seniors from the 2007-2008 team.

Indeed, Germantown’s 2008 graduation hacked off the top half of the Tigers’ squash ladder. The ceremony furnished exit visas to No. 1 Brad Thompson, No. 2 Henry Miller, and No. 3 Zach Porges, who had also been the starting goalie on the GFS soccer team that won the Friends School League championship that fall. The squash team also lost a fourth senior in Evan Coates (who normally played at No. 6 or 7), so Germantown got very young very quickly.

As the 2008-2009 campaign gets underway, the top three players are sophomores who were all members of the varsity seven last year: Daniel Sneed, Alex Nalle, and Ben York. Freshman Diego Sanz is currently in the No. 4 spot, and in the fifth position is senior Chris Tyson, who was the eighth player on the team ladder last year and saw action in a number of varsity matches.

Sophomore Max Kaplan and senior Kyle Loder are playing No. 6 and No. 7 respectively. The Tigers’ new head coach (for both boys and girls) is Doug Whittaker, who was already well known to the GFS players since he’s been a squash pro at Germantown Cricket for more than a dozen years. The team’s former mentor, Australia native James “Buck” Rogers, has crossed the Schuylkill to work at the Merion Cricket Club.

Although the visiting Fords won all of last Monday’s matches in three straight games, several players in the middle of the GFS lineup were able to score a number of points. York was outlasted in three 9-5 games by Haverford junior No. 3 Creighton Soukup, and in the fourth spot Sanz succumbed to visiting senior Wes Roller, 9-6, 9-3, 9-5.

Soukup’s brother Price, a Haverford senior, won at No. 2 over Nalle, 9-3, 9-2, 9-1, and at No. 1 a 9-0, 9-0, 9-2 victory went to junior Ash Egan, who stood almost a head taller than the Tigers’ Sneed. Germantown’s Tyson, playing No. 5, bowed to another Haverford junior, Bayard Kuensell, 9-2, 9-2, 9-1.

Rounding out the contest, visiting junior Bob Greco took three 9-0 games from Kaplan at No. 6, and Austin List, the sophomore No. 7 for the Fords, topped Loder, 9-1, 9-1, 9-2.