Success at Urban Individual Nationals

This year’s Urban Individual Nationals tournament, hosted by SEA, brought together students from 17 programs across 19 cities in the US as well as one international affiliate from Columbia. The 459 students that participated were split between two colleges in Massachusetts, Williams and Amherst, depending on age. This year was our first year with students old enough to compete in the U17 division, so five of our oldest players went to Amherst College while the remaining nine went to Williams. 

The first day of the tournament was eye-opening for our students at Amherst. The pace of play, the competitive nature of the players, and the strength and endurance of their opponents, had reached a new level. We took four losses that day, but learned a lot about how to compete. Day two brought more confidence and more wins than losses. Our biggest win on Saturday came when our rising 10th grader, Mikayla, won second place in the academic contest, which all urban squash students compete in. She was recognized and presented a plate during the evening’s awards’ ceremony. On Sunday, we had three students still competing. Mikayla won two matches, while Amari and Namell split their final two. Amari ended up 3rd in the Girls U17B division!

At Williams, we had a number of first time players at such a large event. They all performed extremely well, shocking some more seasoned players and taking their losses in stride. Da’Nerah Chisholm finished 2nd in Girls U13A division. De’Aysia Mitchell was seeded 29th out of 32 players in the Girls U13B division. However, after a string of thrilling upsets, she made it to the finals and lost a close one, finishing 2nd in her division as well!

These represent our best finishes to date at Urban Individuals. Students came away from the weekend asking how they can get more practice, more competition, more of SCS. Thanks to all that continue supporting our program and providing our students with the opportunity to travel to these awesome events.