The DAC Squash Classic Feb 7-10, 2019
As I sit at home on my (Daddy’s!) armchair and put together
this article, it is a surreal feeling that the tournament is once again at its
end and I am not standing in the mezzanine level of the court area, clipboard
in hand, swapping between pen, pencil and highlighter, filling in the
spreadsheets and hearing the constant and unremitting thwacking of the squash
ball. I can’t even begin to guess how many people asked me this weekend where
court “CC26” is (it’s a code I use to create the match schedule), how many ‘scouting
reports’ on everybody’s next opponent I was probed for, if I had spare meal
tickets because they lost them, or why the Handball crew were all wearing tan
jackets… (I actually don’t know why that is the case, but it’s a long time
tradition.)
The weather was a lot more cooperative than last year, so
the heebie-jeebies that I feel before the event starts is from waiting around
for that phone call or e-mail that a player will cancel last minute.
Fortunately, there were only a couple of hiccups in that regard, but nothing
too tragic which upset the applecart. We did, however, have a couple ‘casualties
of war’ for the early Saturday morning matches due to… let’s say… self-inflicted
accidentally on purpose over indulgence. It is not an unexpected consequence of
running any tournament, but it is a source of irritation for all the affected
nonetheless.
I would like to make a quick shout-out to Brittani
Kindle. She came all the way from Chicago to experience her first DAC
Classic. Her late Friday night match ended up in the worst way possible when
she injured her knee in the second game and had to be whipped away to the
emergency room. I am happy to announce that we did see Brittani on Saturday, no
bones were broken but it does look like ligament damage. We wish were a quick
and full recovery, and she can hopefully get back on the squash court in the not
too distant future.
Let’s see who rose to the top of their divisions:
2.5 Singles:
Nine of the 14 players in the division were DAC members. So, fairly decent
chance we would produce a winner. The good money were on two of our youngest
players, Matt Paradiso and Michael DiFrancesco. Remember when you
were young and you had that natural excitement about certain things - like
Christmas… or the Grand Final / Super Bowl when your favorite football team was
playing in it (oh, sorry Detroit fans, that one be a big fat “NO!”)…
or the feverishness anticipatory thrill of that chocolate ice cream cone…? Michael
DiFrancesco reminds of those times with his refreshing innate enthusiasm
for every match. (Of course now us old folk look towards every match with
trepidation in the hope we can come out the other end without annihilating our
bodies in the process.) Michael buzzed thought his first three matches 3-0 to
reach the final, where he was hoping he would have to play his mate - and rival
- Matt Paradiso. His wish came true.
Matt also cleaned up on his way to the final. He didn’t
drop a game either, but where Michael bounces off the ceiling and walls, Matt
is a picture of calmness and serenity. A relatively unusual trait in the 2.5,
one would expect players in this category to be a little more panicky due to
being less experienced, but Matt hardly ever appears to have his feathers
ruffled. That’s helpful.
That tranquility would pay off for Matt in the final. His
soft high serves can be a nightmare to tackle if one isn’t a confident volleyer
- especially on the backhand side. It is a formidable weapon at this stage and
Michael would find it difficult to regularly get into the front position of the
court. It was a 3-0 result, both lads gained important confidence and are
already looking at the 3.0 if not the 3.5 by this time next year.
Match of the division goes hands down to Paul Gormley
and Jess Wilken (London). Their quarter final was an epic encounter,
Paul had match ball in the fourth game but failed to convert which cost him
dearly in the long run. Lengthy rallies, both players hustled their pantaloons
off, crowd cheering them on.
3.0 Singles:
Once again, our members dominated the numbers in this category. So once again,
the odds were on our side to win it. But not so fast. Early on there looked to
be a couple of spoilers embedded in the bottom half of the draw: Cyrus
Chinoy (Franklin) and Steve Tallon (London). These two met up in the
quarter final. Cyrus, with a racquetball background, and Steve, the veteran
with a ton of experience. A great match ensued and from the looks of it, the
winner of the category was playing this match. Steve edged out the hard hitting
Cyrus 3-2 - which actually may have hurt his overall chances. Backing that up
the next morning, he had to fight against David Zack. David is not a
power player but can keep the ball going and moves it around rather smartly.
His consistency can be a little suspect at times however, and a few untimely
errors eventually cost him but not until it was deep in the 5th game and after
he had run poor Steve ragged. Steve was into the final, but could he live to
fight one more round?
His work would be cut out for him to say the least. If he
thought Cyrus and David ran a lot, then he was in for another shock with Han
Peng. No one can accuse Han of not running for the ball. He thrives on
extended rallies, the longer the better. Han’s toughest match was in his second
round against Chris Moyer. Chris is another who enjoys the strung out
points and has the fitness to match - as proven by his win in the DAC triathlon
this weekend - and as you would expect, Han and Chris went to 5 games. Han’s
win just had him warming up as he moved through the next rounds without losing
another game.
The final had its moments but Steve it seemed was just a
step off compared to his semifinal. Han’s motor was still churning at full tilt
and after winning the first game in a tie-break he clearly took more control of
the match as Steve was fading, and ran out the following 2 games. This is one
better than last year where Han lost the final. Now, he will be confronting the
3.5 and testing everyone’s staying ability up there!
3.5 Singles:
From the far west coast to the east, this category had our first competitors
ever from Seattle (2) and one from Carolina. Many of our members would remember
Bob Rogers and his wife Stephanie who made the trek from Charlotte to
play this tournament. He did mention how much he missed the DAC, he was a great
supporter of our squash program. Special mention to James Kraft and Dominque
Posey flying in all the way from Seattle, a commendable effort!
Unfortunately for these three, none of them made it passed the quarter finals,
but I am sure the festivities of the weekend made up for it!
This was a very competitive draw as only 6 of the 28
matches in both the main and consolation brackets ended up 3-0. Reaching the
final the hard way was Chris Ritter (Chicago). Determined to get his
money’s worth, Chris won his first 2 matches 3-2, and then to conserve a little
energy only went to 4 games to win his semi.
On the other side of the draw, Mack Gembis was
trying to figure out what would be the right amount of games per match he would
be satisfied with. Not content with a 3-0 first round, he then won 3-1 in the
second, and tried to see what a 3-2 would then feel like. That was probably a
little too close for comfort, so Mack settled on a 4-setter for the final. Even
though it was 3-1, I actually thought the final would be little tougher than
what it ended up being, I felt that Chris may have been somewhat gassed by this
point of the weekend, and I did see a few too many “easy” tins creep into open
court opportunities. Mack was happy to take the freebies and walk away with the
title.
4.0 Singles:
Now we get into the big draws. 26 in this one. One would think with such a lot
of players, the matches would be tight, long and make my schedule run late.
However, unlike the 3.5, of the 27 main draw matches, 22 of them ended up 3-0!
That’s quite remarkable really.
Mike Beauregard (BAC) has been playing this
tournament for years and has never quite made it to Sunday’s final match. This
year would be different. He was a man on a mission. Focused. Very clean squash
leading up to the final, taking down any and all opponents 3-0 in business like
fashion. Socks stayed pulled up, shirt stayed tucked in, hair stayed securely
in place.
On the other side of the bracket, my eyes were on Jay
Nash from London. Another terrific supporter of the DAC Classic year after
year, Jay is also yet to take home a winner’s trophy. This year wouldn’t be the
one for him either. (Which is good news for us actually because now he has to
definitely come back in 2020 to try again!) Jay started off in fantastic form
with three 3-0 victories, but then fell victim to John Rogers - also in
three - in the semifinal. John almost didn’t play at all this weekend when on
Thursday night he received a bush-league high tackle in his local soccer league
that left him with 7 stitches just above his ankle. He decided to play anyway -
a good decision!
It was an interesting final. Mike kept up his steady
version of squash whereas John is a bit more unorthodox with his shot making,
coupled with his ability to run for hours on end. John’s method is relatively
less consistent and against somebody who doesn’t give away a lot of free
points, it’s generally not a recipe for a victory either. It was Mike’s
toughest outing of the weekend though, he did have to work a lot harder to take
the 3-1 win and finally pick up his first winner’s trophy!
Match of the bracket goes to Mike Petix and Ken
MacDonald who decided a first round 12-10 in the 5th grinder was the
perfect way to start their campaign and totally ruin themselves for their
following matches.
4.5 Singles:
Yeah, this division was going to be awfully difficult for any DAC member to
win. A tough line up of 26 players, this is where we get a larger percentage of
non-members. Generally speaking, the traveling players are of a higher level.
Only one of our players reached the quarter final - Colin Bayer where he
then lost 3-0 to Tim Cox of Chicago. No shame in that of course - Tim
did get all the way to the final, dropping 3 games in the four matches to get
there.
When I made the draw, a lot of fingers were pointing to Max
Surnow (BAC) predicting he was the one to watch out for. And, after the
first 3 rounds, the finger pointing was holding very true. Max has no backhand.
At all. In fact - because I asked a BAC member - word on the street is that Max
has never hit a backhand shot in his squash career. He switches hands
and hits everything forehand which is quite the sight to see. Neither side
seems stronger than the other. He can also read the play extremely well, runs
quickly, is 120 lbs is soaking wet so can run all day and night and into next
year, and couldn’t be a nicer fellow. Of course, now that I have built him up
to be the perfect human, somehow, Ian Brooks (Franklin) figured out a
way to beat him. Maybe he had some Kryptonite tucked away in his pocket, but
Ian very quickly turned into the not-so-dark-horse of the draw. Ian is a
racquetball player by trade but his squash doesn’t reflect that. He actually
hits steady length instead of cranking every ball low and hard (a typical
racquetball trait) and is also fit and quick. Ian beat Max 3-1 to get to the
final and tackle Tim.
Similar styles between the two finalists, it was Ian who
appeared to have the upper hand. Just a tad more consistent with his line and
length, it also looked like Tim wasn’t hitting as clean during the final as his
previous matches. Timing may have been slightly off, which is credit to Ian for
creating that scenario the first place. Ian took the match 3-1.
5.0 Singles:
I think this was the category of the tournament this year. Players stepped up
to compete, we had some almost upsets that would have absolutely turned
heads and raised eye-brows. For example, Fred Fordon’s almost win over Brad
Steel (BAC) in the first round only to lose in 5 and scare the living
bejeezus out of Brad putting him on notice.
Then there was Derek Aguirre who also almost
upset Brad in the semi final, again taking him to 5 games in another nail
biter. Brad survived this one as well and you have to tip your hat that he
managed to fight off all the challengers getting so close to knocking him out.
And then to George Kordas who played inspirational
squash, shooting angles from nowhere, taking David Coate from London (he
was a 5.0 finalist in 2017) to 5 games as well. George was on fire but he
couldn’t keep up the form in game 5 - the magic had evaporated by then!
And then Max Franklin - who didn’t really upset Noah
Minetz (Chicago) in the first round, but did come back from a pasting in
the first 2 games to turn it around and win in 5. He then lost in 5 to David
Coate in the longest match of the tournament in the semi final. I think it
took 90 minutes at least.
Would the final be just as close? No. It wouldn’t be. David
was feeling good. Very good. Despite the marathon semi, he kept up his energy
and had the groove going. There was not a lot Brad could do except try as he does
to hang in there. It wasn’t going to work for this one and David ended the
match 3-0.
5.5 Singles:
One of the deepest 5.5 draws we have had at the DAC, my prediction for this one
was for our very own Stefan Houbtchev - not to walk away with the
title - but to win it in a fairly convincing manner. His first round gave every
indication he was going to be able to do that, winning 3-0 and never in doubt.
The semifinal was a different story.
Step up Alex Ford (London). Alex actually almost
lost first round to Jed Elley, who played some marvelous squash taking
on the youngster with nothing to lose. Alex escaped with a 3-2 win, which
probably made him take a deep breath (from relief) and help him get ready for
Stefan. And what an excellent match it was. Nothing between them, after a
straightforward game win to Stefan, it was on. Back and forth, it was anyone’s
guess who would end up the victor, as neither could gain any ascendancy. But,
there does need to be a winner, and it was Stefan who prevailed. But
barely. 12-10. He would pay for that.
His opponent would be 3 time winner Mark Eugeni
(Windsor) - who first won this event in 2009. Mark is 47 and keeps himself in
great condition. By his own admission, Mark was not expecting to reach the
final. His first round was a tough 3-2 win over David Adams of Chicago
and as a fellow 47 year old I can tell you it is not a way you want to start a
tournament. Winning, yes. But not in 5. It makes it so much harder to recover.
Mark is trooper though. A 3-1 win in round 2, and then a 3-0 win in the semi
against his DAC nemesis Brad Hanebury from London set up an unlikely
final.
On paper, Stefan was the favorite. But Mark is very
experienced. And he has a golden racquet - can put the ball away with consummate
ease if you give him any space or time. It appeared that Stefan’s semifinal
hurt him physically more than he would care to admit. A close first game, but
Stefan sneaked it out. Mark took the second, but in the third, once again
Stefan somehow managed to hang on in the tie-break. It was all Stefan had.
Clearly is distress, Stefan could no longer compete and at the end of the
fourth he had to concede the match to Mark. It was an unfortunate ending to a
magnificent tournament, but Mark fully deserved the win. His fourth DAC Classic
title. One for the veterans!
Doubles A: Who
was going to stop the juggernaut team of Mark Eugeni (Windsor) and Jon
Uffelman (BAC)? They have won this event 6 times, are the current reigning
champions, and always seem to have an extra gear whenever they feel threatened.
Two 3-1 wins to reach the final on this occasion, it wasn’t as easy as they may
have wanted (or thought) it to be, but nor were they in any real danger of
losing. The question on everyone’s mind was who was going to be the runner up.
But once they saw the Chicago team, that question morphed into more of a
statement of… “these guys could win.”
David Adams and Zach Archer showed off
their stuff and then some. Want to see a winning angle? BOOM! There you
go. Oh, you missed it? Here’s another one… BOOM! You missed that one
too? Don’t worry, their opponents did too. A display of what doubles is all
about. Power and angles. And winners. And clearing their backsides out of the
way. It was impressive. It was effective. And it was too much for all that
stood in their way. Mark and Jon put together a competitive first game for the
final, but that was it. Now, by this stage, and I do have to mention this, Mark
was on his 3rd doubles matches for the weekend after his 4 singles. His
body was screaming at him and it wasn’t not cooperating. His movement was
clearly hampered. I don’t think Mark and Jon would have won anyway, but it
would have been a closer result. A tight 3-0 in any case. Dave and Zach raised
the bar.
Doubles B: A
full 16 draw, 8 of the teams were completely DAC. There were another 3 teams
that were half DAC, so we had a better than average chance to bring home some
hardware here. One of the upsets of the tournament must go to Andy Adamo
and Paul Ward. Talk about striking gold, I didn’t think they stood much
of a chance against Laura Savage and Betsy Carson (London) -
considering this all female team won the category last year. But I was
wrong. So very wrong. As wrong as I always am whenever my wife and I have an argument.
Paul and Andy took down the ladies 3-0. They continued their form in the
quarter finals although not quite as convincing with a 3-1 win over Joey
Gaylord and Kevin Thomas. I think Joey and Kevin were so worried
about playing Laura and Betsy they were thrown off their game when Paul and Andy
rocked up!
Alas, the Ward /Adamo team ran out of steam in the semi
when they were sent packing by Jason Currie and JC Tibbitts 3-0.
Secretly, Jason and JC were my pick to win this category. Of course, I don’t
announce my predictions out loud since doing so is only the kiss of death.
Meeting them in the final were last year’s finalists Jay
Nash and James Hayes (London). Jay and James took out the other DAC
strong-man team in Zac MacVoy and David de la Torre in the semi
in a tight 3-1.
The final started out very well for JC and Jason as they
raced to a 2-0 lead and it looked like (and felt like) they had it in the bag.
But again, me and predictions don’t mix so as usual, Jay and James started
their comeback to even it out at 2-2 and continue that impetus until 9-6 in the
5th. It was then the London team found the tin on the next 6 consecutive
rallies which of course makes it rather tricky to win when you do that so late
in the match and they paid the ultimate price. JC and Jason took full advantage
of the momentum change and with a roaring crowd, finished the job to be crowned
champion!
Doubles C:
This was another strange result to me. Not because of the winners - it was
obvious to all that the best team won here - but because out of the 13 matches
played, only 1 of them went past 3 games. You’d expect a handful more of them
to be stretched out to 4 or 5 games, but we were littered with 3-0 results
through this bracket.
Undeniably, Tim Cox and Arun Lamba from
Chicago were unstoppable. Even at their absolute best, I don’t think their
finals opponents were going to win. Maybe pick up a game, Marc Topacio and
Shail Arora were just a few points short in all 3 sets, maybe trying a
little too hard at times to end the rally. They definitely gave Tim and
Arun the hardest time out of all the matches they endured, and probably would
have won the category themselves if Cox / Lamba were not in it.
Once again the DAC is at an end for another 12 months and
once again the “thank you” list is long. The sponsors are first and foremost,
their long-term support of this event is incredible, without them and this
tournament couldn’t run.
The DAC staff. There isn’t a better crew of people
anywhere. There is a reason we are ranked #1. And we should be proud of
that!
Josh Slominski - thanks, mate! You save me a lot of
stress. Patrick Petz. Always a pleasure to have your helping hand.
My wife and daughter. Unwavering support. You both make it
so much easier to handle. Love you!
And to all the players. You make this event what it is. I
dearly hope you keep coming back… which will be the week after the Super Bowl
in 2020. Mark it on your calendar!
