[jbutton size=”large” color=”blue” link=”http://teamusabjo.blogspot.co.uk/” newpage=”yes”]Team USA Blog[/jbutton]
For the second year in a row, Team USA will send a strong delegation of thirty-nine juniors to compete in the 2016 British Junior Open Squash Championships, January 2-6, in Sheffield, England.
Last year saw the first Team USA delegation including twenty-seven players and five coaches travel across the pond to compete in the British Junior Open. Marina Stefanoni achieved the highest finish for Team USA finishing fifth in the GU13 division.
Other notable American performances included a No. 21 finish for Timmy Brownell from Belmont, MA, also the U.S. Junior Open BU19 winner and member of the U.S. Junior Men’s team, as well a No. 27 finish for Brownell’s U.S. Junior teammate, Sean Hughes from Newton Square, PA.
The British Junior Open is considered the world age-group championships at all age groups other than U19, however some formidable names have been crowned BJO Champion in the past. Past winners include Nick Matthew, Greg Gaultier, Karim Darwish, Ramy Ashour, and Mohamed Elshorbagy on the male side. For the women, names such as Nicol David, Nour El Sherbini and Camille Serme.
Team USA will continue to work hard and are striving to add to the names of Michelle Quibell (GU17) and Olivia Blatchford (GU15) who have previously won BJO titles.
The British Junior Open is a great opportunity to expose elite U.S. junior players to international players as Team USA continues to compete against the world’s best.
The coaching team is led by US Squash Director of National Teams Rich Wade and includes Alex Stait, Simba Muhwati, Annette Pilling, Luke Butterworth, Dan Roberts, Kumail Mehmood, Gareth Webber, and Mostafa Essam.
“With regard to our junior programs, we at US squash have four goals: to provide young people the opportunity to improve, to ensure that life lessons are learned, that young people are taught to compete hard and yet do so maintaining the highest value of sportsmanship, fair play, and to behave professionally both on and off the court, and finally, to ensure that they develop a sense of independence and ownership over their journey, ” said Paul Assaiante, Ganek Family US Squash Head National Coach.
“If these are the “bases” of the junior squash” Assaiante continued, “then it is safe to say that Rich Wade and his wonderful team will once again hit a “grand slam” at the British Junior Open.”
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For full coverage and results, visit the official British Junior Open tournament page.
Below is the full list of Team USA players traveling to England:
BU13
David Beeson
Auggie Bhavsar
Charles Braff
Tad Carney
Mukunth Gopalakrishnan
GU13
Margaux Comai
Maureen Foley
Aubrey Lennon
Abigail Schuster
Lucie Stefanoni
BU15
Jed Burde
Mateo Giraldo
Tyler Mackesy
Maxwell Velazquez
Spencer Yager
GU15
Emma Carney
Katherine Glaser
Binney Huffman
Meghna Sreedhar
Marina Stefanoni
BU17
Tyler Carney
Duncan Joyce
Patrick McElroy
Jacob Rhee
Samuel Scherl
GU17
Madeleine Chai
Grace Doyle
Cameron Munn
Emily Rose
Haley Scott
BU19
Cole Becker
Andrew Douglas
Spencer Lovejoy
Calvin McCafferty
GU19
Julia Potter
Hannah Seckendorf
Morgan Steelman
Casey Wong
Isabel Young