2nd Day of Individual Championships

13:30 - Nick Sachvie beat Danish Atlas Khan PAK (5th seed) 12/10 5/11 11/7 9/11 11/9
18:45 - Nick Sachvie lost to Ali Ashraf El Karargy EGY 11-3, 11-8, 12-10

Individual Championships Begins

09:00 - Arjun Gupta (Can) beat Bryce Redman (Nzl) 12/10 11/6 11/4
10:30 - Tyler Osborne (Can) beat Bryan Keating (Usa)11/3 11/4 11/2
10:30 - [17/32] Nick Sachvie (Can) beat Francisco Parades (Ecu) 11/2 11/0 11/4
12:00 - Andrew Schnell (Can) beat Antonio de la Torre (Gua) 11/3 11/2 11/3
15:45 - Arjun Gupta (Can) lost to Jacob Alexander (AUS)7-11, 6-11, 9-11.
16:30 - Tyler Osborne (Can) lost to Nasir Iqbal (PAK) 4-11, 8-11,3-11
17:15 - [17/32] Nick Sachvie (Can) beat Ollie Holland (ENG)11-2,11-8, 11-9
18:00 - Andrew Schnell (Can) lost to Mohamed El Sherbini (EGY)11-4, 13-15, 11-13, 9-11.

Final Preparations

Well I can honestly say, I never thought Ecuador was going to be as spectacular as it is. Getting stuck in customs to begin my journey gave me this feeling that is was going to be a very long 3 week. What a story that was, 3 minutes longer and John and I would have had to have void our tickets and probably missed our plane. Luckily John and I are pretty fast even in flip flops.

But what a blast it has been. I mean the people we have met have been incredible. Jonathan has had to do numerous interviews on team Canada, and our popularity continues to rise. Arjun has been the most popular…. So Thursday started off with a little salsa dancing with a large group of young girls. I'm not going to lie team Canada, pretty good dancers. After Santiago Romo, and the president of ambito tennis, and both of their families were very generous in taking us to Banos. We toured around seeing some beautiful waterfalls and Andrew debated whether or not to go bungee jumping off a bridge into the rapids below.
Eventually deciding no, we took a splash in the hot springs. And I mean HOT, almost to the point of scolding but we all toughened it out (even though most of our feet were numb after) .Finally the day concluded with a fantastic dinner at a local argentine's restaurant. Numerous dishes were served with the tenderloin steak being the most popular.
At night we discovered that it wasn't just the girls who liked Andrew but the guys as well… According to Andrew he was "touched" by numerous guys on our trip late last night. I guess red hair is attractive to the Ecuadorian. The red hair has also been a symbol from god as one elderly gentleman called Andrew an "angel" after Andrew finished exiting a local cathedral.

Friday was a very long day.
It started off with a trip to some local leather stores. Of course it was a little too early for Arjun so just the 3 guys and John made the trip. Leaving with no purchases we headed to squash. After our hit, Andrew suffered a major loss. As he thought he wouldn't get to say goodbye to Andre. However after our final lunch at la furnace guess who showed to say goodbye, man was Andrew ecstatic. We said our goodbyes and made the long trip to Quito. Having arrived late, Arjun took his time writing his greatly overdue blog. We had dinner at a local French restaurant. What a terrific dinner. Again steak being the popular choice, so good that even me a seldom steak eater had to credit the chef on a job well done.

Saturday morning we all slept in and had a terrific breakfast at an ethnic coffee shop. The morning almost went downhill as a sketchy looking man appeared to be waiting outside the shop for us. Luckily for us the owner was able to shoe him away with a free coffee. Finally the morning concluded with a walk through a local market. Coach John began to get irritated at the end as local kids kept asking for John to buy gum or to get a shoe shine. Later on us five guys squeezed ourselves into a taxi and went to the club.
This club is probably the nicest club in the world and our team played some of the nicest squash we have played. I mean this club had everything: tennis, horseback riding, swimming, squash, steam rooms, saunas, bmx track, restaurants, sushi bars etc. It would take too long to name them all. After our hit we were all pumped to kill the USA tomorrow in a test match. We squeezed ourselves again back in to another taxi. During the ride, Nick "let one rip" and the driver with some humor lowered down his window and put on the fan to rid the taxi of the smell. We had dinner at the hotel, nothing special and went to bed.

Sunday morning began with a solid breakfast at Coffeetree. After which the team was
harassed by several kids asking for money. "Shoe shine “himself cost Canada about 6 dollars and his sister about another 2. We proceeded to watch a prayer at a local cathedral. Finally the morning completed with a duet of "heaven" by Brian Adams, Tyler and Andrew.
Later the test match was a complete success. Canada dismantled the states in a 4-0 team defeat. Even coach Hill lived up to the task by drawing with the American #2 coach. I took down Chris Jung, Arjun beat Dylan Murray, Nick beat Ash Egan and Andrew beat Brandon Mclaughlin; overall it was a solid performance by team Canada. Later we enjoyed a good dinner at Tony Romos. We watched as two birds in the bush rookies Martin Heath and Adam Hammel battled it out for pushups. Eventually a poor call by Adam forced him into 20 grueling pushups. On the other side of the table the group was playing a movie, actor game called bomb. This one
again went to the lone Canadian Andrew Schnell who knew the most movies and actors, who took the top spot from 8 other Americans …well done Schnell. And this concluded the dominating performance by Canada over the states Sunday afternoon and evening.

Monday morning was a very early morning as we had to get to the club by 10. We all had a fairly light hit just touching up on any loose edges to our game. Afterwards we all wanted to relax in the pool but to our dismay, the whole club was closed. We then spent the longest cab ride of our life, as the driver was unsure of where our hotel was. We enjoyed a nice lunch at ethnic coffee then were off to the market. And what a surprise we found there "shoe shine" and his friends had returned for some more cash. Finally after 10 minutes of their harassment, Nick paid them off with a few cents. We all bought sweaters at the market. We all looked pretty good; I think John looked the best though. We then went back to the hotel and relaxed, a few of us unlucky to still have the runs. Most of us fell asleep ranging from 2-3 hours. Dinner was served again at the local French restaurant. And again steak was the hit dish.

By Tyler Osbourne

Profile of the Week: Andrew Schnell ready to Lay Down the Law at World Junior Championships

Andrew Schnell isn’t keeping any secrets as he prepares for the world junior squash championships in Ecuador. He wants to win the gold medal in individual singles and help Canada to the podium to the team event.

“My goal is to win it,” said Schnell, one of three returning members from Canada’s 2008 world junior team that placed an impressive seventh.

“I guess that’s a dream right now, but let’s hope it comes true. I’ve learned a lot from the international game the last few years. You need patience and you have to play the game within the game by revealing your tactics slowly to your opponent. You need to be able to keep adding new dimensions to your game to keep your opponent off balance.”

At the junior level this season, Schnell has been dominant. He’s won five major tournaments, including the Scottish Open, the Canadian Open and a second consecutive Canadian junior title.

“I couldn’t be better prepared and my season has been perfect,” said Schnell. “I’ve only lost one junior match all season so I couldn’t ask for anything better at this point. It’s been amazing.”

Schnell, who started the sport at age seven at the Glencoe Club where he still trains, says his dedication to squash this season has paid off with the strong results.

“I took the year off school which helped me focus solely on squash,” said Schnell a business and law student at the University of Calgary. “But the main thing is the hard work and training and the desire to be the best. I’m fitter than I’ve ever been.”

In addition to his junior matches, Schnell dipped his racquet onto the pro circuit this year, playing in six events this season.

“The best way of training is definitely match play,” he said. “To gain that experience and win some matches at the pro level is definitely a different sort of feeling and achievement than junior squash.”

Schnell’s career has been influenced by his older brother Graeme Schnell, a Canadian university champion. Ever since the pair were youngsters, just playing squash as an afterschool activity, they have helped each other reach a high level of excellence in the sport.

“He is three years older than me and he’s always been pulling me up to the next level,” said Andrew Schnell. “I was always trying to keep up with him. Even though he has less time these days, he still comes down to the club with me at night just so I can that extra bit of training in.”

Schnell hopes that extra work in the end will be worth its weight in gold.

Final Preparations for Quito

DAY 1

The day my blog started we were on our way to the Schnell’s cottage in Windimere for a nice relaxing day on the lake, taking our mind off squash and worlds. It was our day of fun, which included a second ping pong tourney, late night high stakes poker games which had very tough competition for me (sarcasm), water sports, and great food cooked by the host Schnell family and guest chef Jonathan “fatty” Hill. The ping pong tourney was dominated by the (always) underrated Tyler Osborne of Kingston, Ontario. The quarters held a classic match up between Graeme Schnell and me. As usual, I got unlucky with some bad calls by the reff late in the game and brutal frames by Graeme that caught me off guard. I ended up losing first round for the second time straight but I basically feel like I should have won the tournament. After the ping pong tournament finally ended, we had a great dinner - wings and ribs. Later that night we decided to go hunting for caribou, elk, fawn, and grizzly bears. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any to hunt down so we called it a night.
The next morning was our day of water sports and getting sweet tans on the beach. I was really excited to get an unreal tan, as was the rest of the team. Our first task for the day was water skiing, which I’ve never done before but thought I’d be a natural because of my ridiculous leg and core strength. Nick was the first to try (apparently “never having tried it either”), and was pretty solid after a few tries of getting up and looked like he could be on a water skiing poster in Andrew’s room or something. Tyler decided to try as well, having done it before he looked like he had some skills with his wide stance approach. Finally, after waiting for a while and warming up with chin-ups on the boat because the water was probably below zero degrees Celsius, it was my turn. I felt kind of nervous, but at the same time pumped to do it because I didn’t want to be showed up by my team mates. I jumped in the freezing water, acting like I wasn’t cold at all. After my thumbs up sign, to signal I was ready for the boat to pull me out of the water and on to the two skis, I immediately regretted going in. I ended up almost getting up but on the way managing to fill my eyes (which had contacts in them), nose, ears, and lungs with liters of water so I decided I’ve had my fun in this sport and quit. Obviously the rest of the team didn’t understand the severity of my situation so just laughed it off while I thought I was pretty seriously injured and would need quite a bit of recovery time. After that we went to the beach for our tan, and made mud balls that we all threw at Tyler from a secret vantage point.

DAY 2

The next day I was the most tired I’ve ever been. This is because we had to wake up at 7:45am to run up Sulfur Mountain, a huge mountain in Banff Springs. The purpose was to get fit and see how it feels to train at high altitude, around 9000ft above sea level at the top of the mountain. To run up the mountain it is 5.6km total, all up hill, which Andrew was confident about breaking the 26 minute record made by a cross country skier.
It was a race up to the top with me, Nick, Andrew, and Tyler… Jon as well, but he decided to take the gondola up – to nobodies surprise. In the first few minutes of the race, I was winded and fell behind of our wolf pack. Andrew was pretty far ahead it seemed, out of sight, while Nick and Tyler were in the middle. Throughout the run up the mountain, we all had to take breaks and walk, because it was pretty tough to keep a good pace going up hill for almost 6km straight. There was no sign of Andrew however. While I was running up the mountain there were numerous people, mostly young females, who would yell words of encouragement or offer water in their French accents. At one point I got way too tired so decided to take a 5 minute break to stop and admire the gorgeous view from near the top of the mountain. After envisioning Rocky IV when Rocky runs up the mountain for training in Russia for a huge fight against Ivan Drago, I got the courage to keep going up the winding path to the top. Finally, after almost an hour long, I reached the top of the mountain where the rest of the team and Jon were waiting. Andrew broke the record time of getting to the top, beating every athlete to ever run up, doing it in only 24 minutes. However, after more investigation at this suspicious feat, we noticed blood on the back of his shirt, and cuts on his leg, which nobody else seemed to have. The truth of the story then slowly started to come undone, and he broke down and admitted that he cheated – instead of going on the normal winding trail that everyone goes up, he found a dangerous shortcut that goes straight up “by accident”. We think he studied the mountain and its intricacies long before the race took place. After that, our amazing coach took us to an UNREAL brunch at the Fairmont in Banff Springs. He had to book the restaurant two weeks in advance, and it was truly unreal having everything from elk and buffalo meat to amazing waffles and tarimasu. It had a mouth dropping view at the top of the mountain and was a beautiful sight. After that meal with our stomachs stuffed, and our legs filled with lactic acid, we had to go play squash at high altitude in Banff. We then relaxed in the hot tub and loosened up for the drive back to the Schnell’s house in Calgary to pack up for our flight to Quito.

DAY 3

My alarm was set for 4am at the Schnell residence that morning to get ready to go to the airport. We had a long day ahead of us with a stop in Dallas, then Miami, and then finally reaching Quito. At the airport we all decided to nap, but after hearing frightening tiger sounds, we all sprung up. Sadly but also humorously it was a schizophrenic man beside us with tourettes who had a nervous tick of making sounds of animals that are found in the African Lion Safari. For example, repeated “RAWWWR” very loud every few seconds. Jonathan woke up, with an instinct defense making other jungle noises to successfully scare him off. We finally reached Quito late at night, in a ridiculously long line at customs to make it even worse. While looking for a cab, I noticed everyone looked at Andrew funny. It might have been because of his red hair, but I’m not sure. Nick, Tyler, and Jonathan stood out as well because of their different skin color, Jonathan sticking out the most however, no offence.

DAY 4

We were only in Quito for the night, not even unpacking because we were planning to head out for Ambato to train for a week (a small town near Ecuador) early the next morning. I ordered room service very late night when getting into Quito, past 2am after our long day of travel. However, it didn’t end up as planned… communication in Ecuador can be pretty frustrating, especially for your team mates when the food ends up coming to their room instead (in the middle of the night). The hotel is a 5 star however, beautiful rooms with luxurious bathrooms. The next morning was our travel to Ambato; we reached there in approximately 2 hours. We were happy to reach safely and get out of the van ASAP… we thought our life was over at least a few times while driving there with a series of honks and hazard signals by our emotionless driver, accompanied by lane switches into non-existent lanes with seemingly no blind spot checks. But he got the job done and we checked in to the Emperador Hotel in Ambato and were greeted by a local family (the Rome’s) that Andrew had met previously at the Pan-American games. The family was very nice and showed us the club that we would be doing our training at, and good restaurants and shops to visit while in Ambato. The hotel receptionist was also very nice… but that’s a different story (use your imagination). We ended up training at the club later that day, doing only light physical activity and drilling so we can slowly adjust our bodies to the new altitude level with low oxygen content. For dinner we ate at this Pizzeria called “La Fornace” or something like that. It was pretty good, with an oven baked style of cooking the flat bread pizza (look at picture of me at the pizzeria).
Jonathan had never eaten better pizza and never drank a better local cerveza and never eaten a better tasting pasta. When the food would come, whether it was the garlic bread for appetizers, to the spice or “picante” to apply on the pizza, all we would hear is “WOW!”, or “ARE YOU KIDDING ME!” Jon sure does love his food. From then on, we only ate at that restaurant, so there isn’t that much to talk about regarding restaurants in Ambato. After our meals at “La Fornace” we would routinely go straight to the “Helateria” for dessert which is a gelato sit down restaurant. Jon has also never had better gelato before. I have to admit though; food in Ecuador has been surprisingly good, and nobody has gotten sick yet (knock on wood). At night, us “22 year olds” went out to a local bar with the hotel receptionist and her friends “Mari-Posa” (a nickname that means butterfly) and Daniela (an Ecuadorian model). At the bar we all just had virgin sparkling water at the bar of course, since we were in serious training. The butterfly (Mari-Posa), had a liking for Tyler, but he wasn’t interested. We came back at a very reasonable time to get a good night sleep for our two training sessions the next day.

DAY 5

Our alarm was set for 8:30am. I had three alarms though… one for 8:30am, the other for 8:35am, and the third for 8:36am, just to make sure. We would take taxis to the club and back, by
the amount of yellow cabs that were around one would think they’re in New York City. A lot of locals travel by taxi as well, probably because of how inexpensive it is (only 1 DOLLAR to all local destinations). After our morning training session, we ate at the pizzeria (obviously), and then went to the markets to look around. They mostly sold an unnecessary amount of shoes and clothes. The shoes were fake brand names sold at pretty high prices. For example, very poor imitations of Lacoste dress shoes were selling for $50, but the name was misspelled “L’Coste”. I’d rather have 50 taxi rides, personally. While on our walk around the markets we went by many homeless people on the streets. Also we came across a beautiful church and decided to take a look. Andrew being our tour guide would explain the statues and shrines that decorated the holy place. I felt the need to make some confessions so I went to the confession booth. Father Jonathan Hill was very supportive on the other side. After that we decided it’s time that we all went back to the hotel to rest up for a bit after for our second training session. We got into more intense condition games and normal games to see how it feels to play at around 8000ft above sea level. It was ridiculously tiring, but we all felt that we are getting very fit and ready for the tournament that is starting in one week.

Day 6

We had one training session in the morning, which was pretty tough because we all played a few games. After that, the nice family we know from Ambato, took us to Banos (pronounced bahnyose),
which is an hour and a half away from Ambato. It is a nice getaway place, 30 minutes away from the Amazon. We stopped to admire the view a few times on the way, breath-taking mountains. Andrew was about to go bungie jumping, but when we went to the drop zone he got cold feet. I don’t blame him based on the home-made string used as a cord and the fall just above the shallow river and sharp edged rocks didn’t look too appetizing. Pretty sketchy. Later in Banos, we walked around the markets and I decided to buy some gifts for people back home, since I’m such a nice guy. After that we went to the hot springs, which was the highlight of the day trip to Banos. Up in the mountains with the natural hot water flowing was very relaxing scene. It took time to get into the actual water, because it felt like a huge pool of boiling water in a steaming kettle. The temperature of the water was just over 50 degrees Celsius, and after several minutes of staying in the water my body felt numb and loose. We then showered and headed to an Argentinean steak house. The tenderloin steak was truly unbelievable (at the time, not so much when I had to rush to the bathroom a couple hours later). We then went back to hotel, relaxed and ready to continue training the next day.

By Arjun Gupta

Profile of the Week - Nick Sachvie continues family tradition of squash excellence

They are arguably Canada’s first family of squash.

And the most talented of the bunch could be Nick Sachvie, who’ll be a key figure in Canada’s bid to win a medal in the team event at the world junior championships in Ecuador.

Sachvie’s father, Mark Sachvie, has been the racquets director at the White Oaks Club at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., for more than 20 years. His brother Chris graduated from Cornell University this year where he was a three-time All American and the team’s MVP. His sister Lauren has been named the women’s team captain at Cornell for next season

“I’d be at White Oaks all the time and just loved squash,” said Nick Sachvie, who is also headed to Cornell this fall to start his studies in communications. “I was also into other sport like hockey and soccer but eventually I started to take squash more seriously.”

Sachvie, Andrew Schnell of Calgary and Arjun Gupta of Toronto are returning members of the 2008 squad that placed an impressive seventh in Switzerland. They are joined by promising 16-year-old Tyler Osborne of Kingston, Ont.

“That kind of experience is really going to help us do well,” said Sachvie, 18, the under-17 national junior champion in 2008. “All three of us feel we can be right up there with the top in the world. We don’t have the best rankings simply because we don’t travel to as many tournaments overseas.”

A runner-up to Schnell at the junior nationals in April and ninth at the British Junior Open in January are among the competitive highlights for Schnell this year.

“What’s improved the most in my game this year is my touch,” Sachvie said. “My ability to place the ball where I want and hit it at the strength I want is more controlled than ever. I tended to be the guy that just hit the ball hard.”

As the number-two Canadian, the level of Sachvie’s opponents could be more a mystery than for Schnell, who’ll always face the other team’s star player.

“That’s something I’m not too worried about,” said Sachvie. “Most of the top countries will have very strong second and third players. The order of the matches always changes in the team event so they’ll be pressure on all of us.”

The rooms in the senior Sachvie household are probably filled with medals and trophies from the squash accomplishments of their children. One from the 2010 world juniors would certainly shine brightly.

Training Camp in Calgary

I arrived on Sunday to be greeted by Coach Hill also known as "Fatty" in the squash world. We stopped by the club to meet up with two of the team members for a little hit to get ready for the start of our training Monday.

Sunday night started off with some major competition as our generous billet, Mr. McDougall cooked a mean steak on the barbecue while Jon brought over a salmon he caught a few weeks ago to cook. I'm not giving Jon any credit for that salmon although he probably should, but I chose Mr. McDougall’s steak as the winner for the night's dinner.

After dinner, there were a few games of "21"- a basketball shooting contest where first to 21 wins. Andrew McDougall, myself, Arjun, and Tyler all competed in this event. The outcome saw Andrew win most of the games due to the fact that he was our billet and we didn't want to get kicked out the first night of our stay.


The main event of the night was our five person Ping-Pong tournament hosted in the McDougall’s basement, where we had a few upsets of the night by the all defensive Tyler Osborne. He took out top seed representing Calgary, Alberta, Andrew McDougall with some orderly fashion. Next to play was Coach Jon vs. the Indian superstar, Arjun Gupta, a Toronto native. Jon's unorthodox ping-pong technique and skill made it tough for Arjun to control putting him in the final of competition. The next semi-final found myself vs. Tyler. Just off his fresh win, Tyler couldn't keep a good rhythm and was down by a large margin. That is all I have to say about that because I let him win after that because I felt bad for him. The finals was Jon vs. Tyler, yet again someone felt pity for Tyler and allowed him to take the trophy back to Kingston. There are more tournaments to come in the MacDougall’s basement. Stay tuned

Monday morning, the team is finally together as Andrew Schnell arrives. The first session begins and Coach Hill seems to be impressed with our insanely good skills. At lunch the team were guests of Paul Marsh and Jamie Crombie for Dim Sum across the street from the club, this is Jon "Fatty" Hill's favorite place to eat.

Training sessions in the morning and afternoon were very useful and tiring so Wednesday afternoon Jon gave the team the afternoon off and planned a trip down to the stampede. Arjun tried his luck at some gambling games and was unfortunate to lose some cash which is not the usual case. The stampede was a good experience for the team and we had a few laughs throughout the night.

The team has been staying at the Schnell residence since Tuesday night and we have had some team bonding especially Arjun and Tyler…

We are leaving for Banff Friday morning and then to the Schnell's cabin for our rest day. The team is excited to get out and enjoy the fresh mountain air.

Thanks again to the McDougall and Schnell family for being generous and having us stay in their homes for our time in Calgary.

Nick Sachvie
Captain of the Junior Men's Canadian Team

Profile of the Week - All business with Canadian squash ace Arjun Gupta

The biggest worry on Arjun Gupta’s mind these days is how his body is going to react to the high altitude conditions in Quito, Ecuador at the up coming world junior squash championships.

He’s heard the stories and the warnings and he is working harder than ever to make sure he is in the best condition of his life when he arrives in the South American capital. Gupta is one of three returning players from the 2008 team that placed eighth at the junior worlds in Switzerland. This year anything less than a medal will likely be disappointing for the Canadians.

‘’Apparently you get tired 10 times faster than under normal conditions,’’ said Gupta, 18, born and raised in Toronto.

‘’I’m pretty nervous about that part of it. But the guys feel confident with the experience we’ve acquired and we know the competition pretty well.’’

Gupta has just completed his first year business studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. The school is a hot spot for Canadian players with seven on the men’s team and five on the women’s squad this past season. The men’s team placed sixth in team competition at the national championships.

‘’The biggest improvement in my game this year is that I’m mentally stronger,’’ said Gupta, third at the Canadian junior championships in April. ‘’I’m playing hard for every point, I never give up and I can just grind through a match even if it’s not going well for me.’’

It is Gupta’s parents that encouraged him to participate in various sports. In the end it was squash that won out. His biggest influence is his older brother Amar, who is also at Cornell University.

Another player that’s been a great assistance to Gupta and other Canadian players is Jonathon Power, the former world number-one and world champion.

‘’Jonathan’s helped out my game quite a bit,’’ said Gupta. ‘’He’s put the emphasis on focusing on the important aspects of the game. Things like my speed on court and footwork have really improved under Jonathon’s guidance.

‘’He trained with Nick Sachvie and I, just a couple of weeks ago to help us get ready for the world. It was really nice of him.’’

If Gupta and his teammates can reach the podium at the junior worlds, it will certainly rank up alongside Power’s exploits as one of the best moments ever in Canadian squash.

Profile of the Week - Tyler Osborne brings depth to Canadian junior program

Tyler Osborne knows the experience he will gain at the world junior championships will be important to Canada maintaining a strong showing on the international scene in the future.

Of the four-team members at these world juniors, the 16-year-old Osborne is the only one that wasn’t on the 2008 squad that placed an impressive seventh at the world juniors in Switzerland.

With a medal finish within its reach, Osborne is part of one of the strongest Canadian teams ever sent to this event.

"It's incredible to get selected to the team, without a doubt the highlight of my career so far,” said Osborne, who is from Kingston, Ont. “The experience I’ll get from being with my teammates and being part of the event will not only be good now but in future years as well." The selection to the world junior team caps a great season for Osborne. It all started in December with a victory in the under-17 division at the Canadian Junior Open in Montreal. He followed with more strong results in January at the U.S., British and Scottish Opens.

In April, he posted a fourth place in his under-19 debut at the Canadian junior championships. His three world junior team teammates – Andrew Schnell of Calgary, Nick Sachvie of St. Catharines, Ont., and Arjun Gupta of Toronto, finished 1-2-3 respectively,

"The biggest improvement in my game has been my defence," said Osborne. “I can cover the court a lot better now and I’m able to pick those one or two extra balls that I wouldn’t have been able to retrieve a year ago.” Osborne has been playing squash for as long as he can remember. Both his parents were competitive players and have transferred their love of the sport and physical fitness to their children.

"I play at lot of sports but nothing to the same degree as squash," said Osborne. "My parents taught me the importance of sport and exercise and pursuing your goals." At 16, Osborne is still undecided how far he wants to take his squash talents at the competitive level. His top priority is to pursue and complete a university education. Whether he becomes a professional player or not, it is likely, just like his parents, he will continue to practice and preach the benefits of the sport.

The Road to Quito

2 years later, we have picked another team to represent Canada at the Junior Men’s World’s. In 2008 our team was Nick Sachvie, Andrew Schnell, Kelly Shannon, Fred Reid and Arjun Gupta. We were seeded 8th and with such a young team, we were not sure where we would end up placing. We did a week preparation in Luzerne, Switzerland for the event in Zurich and that was instrumental in helping us attain the best result for the Junior Men’ in 4 world’s…..7th place.

On July 27th the Junior Men’s World’s Individual part of the competition begin in Quito, Ecuador. Well, Quito is almost 10,000 feet above sea level so the preparation for this is critical to ensure the athletes are acclimatized properly.

We will begin in Calgary around July 11th where the team will train in Calgary for 5 days which is around 3500 feet. Our hope is to go to the mountains and further our acclimatization process at over 5000 feet and then leave for Ecuador on the 19th. Soon after arriving in Quito we will travel to a town in Ecuador called, Ambato. This town is around 8000 feet so will further enhance the process. We are booked in at a local Tennis and Squash Club and will be on court once or twice a day there for 4 days. We also will be planning a trip to the tourist destination of Banos, which is about an hour from Ambato.

The Individuals being on July 27th and the initial draws are out. It seems that we are scattered throughout the draws which is good and there are some very good potentials for some top 8 finishes in the Individuals. The seedings for the team event will be done before the competition, however, can change based on results from the Individual event. The team event begins on August 2nd and we are expecting to be seeded in the 5 – 8 bracket, however are planning on improving upon our seed and placing in the top 4. With the team of Andrew Schnell, Nick Sachvie, Arjun Gupta, Tyler Osborne and Mike McCue (Non Travelling Alternate) Canada is going into the 2010 Junior World’s with a very strong team that has vast International experience.

Go Canada!

Jonathan Hill, Head Coach

Squash Canada announces strong junior team

Andrew Schnell of Calgary, Arjun Gupta of Toronto and Nick Sachvie of St. Catharines, Ont., will make a second consecutive appearance at the men’s world junior squash championships set for July 27-August 7 in Quito, Ecuador.

The trio helped Canada to a better than expected seventh place finish at the 2008 junior worlds in Switzerland. This year they are joined by first-year member Tyler Osborne of Kingston, Ont. Schnell, Sachvie, Gupta and Osborne took the top four spots respectively at the Canadian junior championships this past April in Calgary.

“At the last world juniors, Arjun, Nick and I went in as 16-year-olds which was great not only in team bonding and friendship but gaining experience on the international stage,” said Schnell. “And we still came seventh so we are aiming for a top-four this year.”

One of the biggest challenges for the players in Quito is the high elevation. The city is nearly 10,000 feet above sea level which will deeply affect play in physically demanding sport like squash.

“We will be going into Quito very well prepared,” said Jonathan Hill, the head coach of the Canadian men’s junior team. “We will hold a training camp in Calgary this summer then head to Quito a week before the championships. The Canadian players will be extremely fit and that should help us do well.”

Schnell will be able to provide some valuable experience to his teammates as well. He was a member of the Canadian team at the senior Pan Am Championships last year in Ecuador.

“It was a very different game there,” said Schnell. “Your strategy changes because the ball is bouncing a lot faster, you have to choose your rallies because there is so little oxygen. The best way to prepare for it is to go down there early and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Schnell also hopes to contend for a medal in the individual event which is being held in the first week of the competition.