The inaugural US Squash Junior Awards Dinner brought together more than 350 members of the junior squash community in a celebration of sportsmanship and excellence during the 2018 U.S. Junior Squash Championships, Saturday night at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Four major awards were presented by US Squash during the dinner, including the DeRoy Sportsmanship Award, a new sportsmanship award for each age group under U19, the William T. Ketcham Jr. Award for Most Improved Player and a special presentation of the USOC Developmental Coach of the Year Award to Cincinnati’s Neal Tew.
For the first time, US Squash presented Age Division Sportsmanship Awards in addition to the annual DeRoy Sportsmanship Award given to a graduating boy and girl competing at National Juniors.
2018 Age Division Sportsmanship Award recipients:
Grace Lodge (GU11)
Jamie Stait (BU11)
Khushi Kukadia (GU13)
Andrew Glaser (BU13)
Joy Qu (GU15)
Shaam Gambhir (BU15)
Olivia Walsh (GU17)
Udai Pal (BU17)
Following the Sportsmanship Award presentation, graduating seniors Emily Rose and Eric Kim were honored with the DeRoy Sportsmanship Award.
Following the sportsmanship awards, ten players received the William T. Ketcham Jr. Award for Most Improved Player, recognizing those who have demonstrated complete dedication to the sport by significantly raising the level of their game. The boy and girl in each division who displayed the largest increase in ranking from March 22, 2017 to February 28, 2018 and also competed in the National Juniors received the Award.
2018 William T. Ketcham Jr. Award recipients:
Eleanor Bunn (GU11, 46 positions)
Rishabh Sharma (BU11, 73 positions)
Sohni Vermani (GU13, 44 positions)
Rishi Srivastava (BU13, 66 positions)
Nathalie Taylor (GU15, 67 positions)
Maxwell Menin (BU15, 86 positions)
Caroline Burt (GU17, 39 positions)
William Evans (BU17, 56 positions)
Elizabeth Lentz (GU19, 40 positions)
William Holey (BU19, 55 positions)
