Squash Thaw tournament to wrap-up 2007-08 season

With five separate categories of competition, this year's upcoming Squash Yukon Squash Thaw Tournament can accommodate even the most casual of players.

With five separate categories of competition, this year’s upcoming Squash Yukon Squash Thaw Tournament can accommodate even the most casual of players. 

The annual event is scheduled to be held on May 9-11 at the Better Bodies Cross Training Centre and will be the wrap-up tournament for the 2007-08 season.

“We encourage everybody, even if you are just starting to play the game, to enter,” said Marie Desmarais, the squash pro at Better Bodies. “The reason people enter this tournament is for the competition, but it’s also because it’s fun and it’s a competition at your level of play. So the word competitive doesn’t mean that you have to be an “A” player, it just means you will be matched up with people at your own level of play and that’s what makes it fun.”

The Squash Thaw is the oldest tournament hosted by Better Bodies and has been held ever since the club opened. The five levels of competition are “A”, “B”, “C”,"D" and novice. Players who take part are guaranteed at least three matches.

The registration deadline is on Tuesday and can be done at Better Bodies or by emailing Desmarais at .

Registration costs $40 for senior players and $35 for junior competitors. Juniors are players under the age of 19. Presently there are 35 entries for this year’s tournament, but Better Bodies hopes to have at least 50 people registered by Tuesday.

Competitors are playing for bragging rights as the tournament doesn’t award trophies or medals, but all entries, in the five divisions, will be eligible to win two flight tickets, courtesy of Air North.

What makes this tournament even more special this year is that Squash Yukon is bringing up four highly skilled players up from Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. to compete in the “A” division.

The purpose of bringing the players up is to give additional competition to the club’s top players, which among them are

Blaine Tessier and Mark Tubman. It has been a couple of years since the last time players were brought to the Whitehorse to compete in this tournament.

Desmarais said the A level players from B.C. will be a benefit to the tournament.

“It would be nice to see our “A” level people pushed or have really good matches and that will be just a treat to see,” she said.

“Whenever you get lots of numbers, lots of people playing, it doesn’t have to be “A” level, it’s exciting.”

Also being held this coming week at Better Bodies is an officiating clinic, which will be on Wednesday and Thursday from 6-9 p.m. The clinic will be taught be a national official and it is free to sign up for anyone who is interested.

Currently there are approximately 10 people who will take part in the clinic. Registration for the clinic can be done up until Wednesday.

After the clinic is over, all those who took part will officiate some of the “A” level matches at the tournament.

This is also one of the reasons Squash Yukon is bringing up the B.C. players, which will allow some of the people living in the community to become certified officials.

Desmarais said it has been a great season for squash at the club.

“We have had lots of new people playing,” she said. “The courts have been busy, people are entering tournaments and the juniors went to a lot of Outside tournaments. It’s been a great year, hopefully it will be even busier next year, so we are excited about it.”

She said the tournaments that players at the club participated in are the main highlights for the season.

“Every tournament is a highlight,” Desmarais said. “So we have approximately a tournament a month, sometimes we have different formats, but people who are playing look forward to these tournaments because they are competitive and they are also lots of fun.”