The best of the best of Guyana’s junior squash campaigners are already in Jamaica and set to take to court tomorrow for the first round of matches in the individual category of the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Caribbean Junior Squash Championships 2012.
In last year’s edition of this segment of the CASA Junior Championships, Guyana was outstanding in front of the home crowd making it to seven of the eight individual finals and capturing five titles. What was even more remarkable was that Guyana had nine individual finalists in the seven finals, since the girls under 15 (Akeila vs Larissa Wiltshire) and under 19 finals (Keisha Jeffrey vs Ashley Khalil) were all-Guyanese finals.
Prior to the play in the individual category last year, national coach Carl Ince, in an invited comment had stated, “I think they should be able to get about five titles here in the individual category…”
The Level Four Elite Squash coach was spot on with his prediction in last year’s edition and while he did not want to go out on a limb again this year, Ince gave this publication an approximation of what he expects.
“Last year I said I was confident in them getting at least five and that’s what they got, and this year I think that they are pretty close to that, but all in all I have great expectations for them all so you never know.”
Ince was pleased to inform Stabroek Sport that the entire squad has trained vigorously and he has seen significant improvements to their game. Four of the five individual champions from last year’s tournament, Ben Mekdeci, Akeila Wiltshire, Nyron Joseph and Jason Ray Khalil will be hoping to make it two in row at this year’s tournament. All four will have to make the transition of playing their first year in a new age category this year which is always a tough task. Speaking about the improvements of the team however, Ince said that he has seen notable improvements to nearly every player. “The technical standard relative to each player is getting higher and higher each year and you can actually see it with the players in this squad.”
What made Ince especially pleased and confident entering the tournament was that the players guaranteed him their optimum performances throughout the tournament. “They all promised to give their maximum effort and that to me is just great; I mean as a coach, you can’t ask for anything more than that.”
The individual tournament will begin tomorrow and conclude on Sunday, while the team tournament will take place from Monday to Thursday. Guyana are the defending girls and boys team champions and the seven-time overall winners at Junior CASA.
Commenting on the prospect of Guyana capturing the eight straight overall title, Ince stated “Everyone seems ready and I have no reason to believe that we won’t be successful again this year.”
The players that will be representing Guyana in the team tournament this year are Shomari Wiltshire and Rebecca Low in the Under 13 category (U13), Benjamin Mekdeci, Patrick Fraser, Larissa Wiltshire and Taylor Fernandes (U15), Victoria Arjoon, Akeila Wiltshire, Nyron Joseph and Jean Claude Jeffrey (U17) Ashley deGroot, Mary Fung-A-Fat, Steven Xavier and Jason Ray Khalil U19.
