For the past 6-10 years I’ve been promoting and advocating for the sport of squash on a regional level. I’ve long believed that the sport is one of the most exciting and satisfying sports to watch and to play. My efforts have generally focused on southern Maine and I’m loosely credited for helping to grow the squash community at the YMCA in Portland. I’ve boosted programs in other parts of the state including the squash playing colleges (Bates, Bowdoin and Colby) and other places where squash is played including Bowdoin, Boothbay YMCA, Hebron Academy, Woodlands CC, USM and Point Lookout Resort in Northport.
Each year I meet and share efforts with others in the sport to find out ways to increase our exposure and maximize my strictly volunteer efforts here in Maine. Maine is technically a part of the Massachusetts Squash umbrella organization within the US Squash district program. I’ve gotten to know the players within both the Massachusetts district and the national US Squash organization over the years. They’ve both encouraged me to take the steps to have the state of Maine “secede” from Massachusetts in order to provide us with more resources and a platform for a more targeted effort for our state.
I expect to have the secession completed early in 2017 and we’ll become formally known as the Maine district within US Squash. This will give us a greater voice within the national structure of squash and will provide us with a minuscule budget to offset some of the organizational expense I have personally covered for years. I’ll put together a committee of people to help make sure we can represent as many interests within the state’s squash community as possible. I expect to continue to use my Maine Squash website as the primary way of communicating with people about squash in Maine and to lead this effort within the state and with the national US Squash organization.
If you are interested in this topic and can help, either with positive comments, contributions, or time, I’d love to hear from you. I fully expect that this effort will have a positive impact on the sport in Maine and nationally. This isn’t a 1 person job and there is plenty of room and need for others to contribute.
