Rolling court for squash

With the plan to sell the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex gaining ground, it now makes no sense to push the construction of one or even two public squash courts somewhere in the 10-hectare Vito Cruz property.

Squash Rackets Association of the Philippines (SRAP) secretary-general Boyong Deles said the other day there were two blueprints to build the courts submitted to the PSC for approval. The first was to build a court beside a plot reserved for beach volleyball near the tennis facilities. The second was to convert a warehouse, now used as a PSC office for purchasing, into two courts.

The first blueprint was approved during the late PSC chairman Butch Tuason’s administration. The construction was put on hold by Tuason’s successor Harry Angping then the PSC under current chairman Richie Garcia approved the second blueprint with a budget of P6 Million.

“The PSC office for purchasing would eventually move out so the warehouse was perfect for two squash courts, considering we would save on roof costs,” said Deles. “For some reason, we were later told to cut the budget to P3 Million. We adjusted the plan from two courts to one. Then, we were told to cut it further to P1 Million. It just couldn’t be done.”

Deles said squash has flourished in neighboring Southeast Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia because of the proliferation of public courts. Squash is easy to play and provides a substantive cardio workout in relatively less time than other racket sports. That’s why it’s popular where the public has access to courts. In the Philippines, squash is exclusively played in private clubs for members and guests only. Deles said the key to promote squash lies in making courts easily accessible to the public.

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Without a public facility, Deles said he’ll request the newly organized Southeast Asian Squash Federation headed by Robert Lao of Sarawak or the Asian Squash Federation for assistance in providing a portable, rolling court. “I’m not sure if we can get it for free but shipping and installation costs will run from P3 to P4 Million,” he said. “If we bring it in, we could play matches at a mall like what they do at Grand Central Station in New York and hold public clinics. We could bring the court around the city, do exhibitions and teach kids how to play. It would open the eyes of the public to squash. This is a sport where we can excel because the world women’s champion Nicol David of Malaysia is only 5-4 and weighs about 120 pounds. Height isn’t a factor at all. Nicol has been world champion since 2006.”

Deles said the PSC provides a P3,000 monthly allowance for four players in the national pool – Robert Garcia, 26, David Pelino, 20, MacMac Bigornia, 20 and Dondon Espinola, 18. A fifth player Myca Aribado, 21, will be added to the list next year. The PSC also pays a monthly allowance of P10,000 to P12,000 each to coaches Ricky Paganpan for the national team and Danny Sablan and Ricky Espinola for the juniors program.

Sablan and Espinola work with a pool of 15 under-16 players at the Manila Boat Club in Santa Ana. There used to be three squash courts at the club but one is now reserved for wallyball and the other is under renovation. Late member Alan May left P500,000 in his will for the club and it is earmarked for the repair of one squash court.

Deles said the PSC recently approved Pelino’s participation at the Asian Beach Games in Phuket on Nov. 14-23. Only 16 players are competing with eight seeded pros and the other eight drawn by lottery. The SRAP entered Pelino and Bigornia in the draw but only one was picked.

Deles said the SRAP hopes to send five players, including Aribado, to the Southeast Asian Games in Singapore in June next year. There will be six gold medals at stake in squash, individuals for men and women, team for men and women and jumbo doubles for men and women. Jumbo doubles is played by opposing pairs on a longer and wider court than World Squash Federation standards. Deles said Singapore is staging two jumbo doubles tournaments before the year ends and if the PSC approves, the SRAP will send teams to become familiar with the rules. Jumbo doubles is not played at all here.

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“We’ve been invited to train for free in Sarawak by Mr. Lao and we’re hoping to do it in March,” said Deles. “This will be in preparation for the SEA Games. Pakistan has also invited us to train. At the moment, squash legend Zainal Abidin is in town for four days training our national team. It’s his third visit this year. We learn a lot from Zainal but the lessons are only for a few days. In Sarawak, we could go full blast in training.”

SRAP vice president Jovie Vilar said he’s optimistic that Pelino and Bigornia will go far in their squash journey with proper support. Early this year, they joined the Fitness Quotient Challenge supervised by Dr. Edgar Eufemio at Xavier School and among 30 athletes from different sports, put squash No. 3 in the conditioning rankings behind only triathlon and rugby.

SRAP trustee Tweetie de Leon-Gonzalez said a three-day international invitational tournament would be a fitting launch of the rolling court if ever it is brought over. “After the competition, we could take the court to different places in Metro Manila and even in the provinces,” she said. “It would generate tremendous media mileage for sponsors and create new interest for squash.” This year, the PSC financed the participation of SRAP players in two international tournaments – the Kijono Open in Jakarta last May and the Asian Team Championships in Hong Kong last June. Bigornia, one of four Filipinos sent to the Kijono Open, won the plate title.