![\"Two-time](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2014\/09\/web_E_130115_Squash_Amherst_953-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Two-time NESCAC Player of the Year Ahmed Abdel Khalek \u201916 takes on a player from Amherst College at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Squash Center. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cOur squash program is among the most competitive in the country, and support from our alumni and parents will enhance the experience for our players while contributing to that excellent reputation,\u201d said McHugh.<\/p>\n
The squash center upgrades will be completely\u00a0donor-funded, with ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ families contributing all\u00a0of the $260,000 needed for the project, scheduled for completion in late October.<\/p>\n
The addition of the sixth court, a refurbished U.S. Open Championship court from McWIL Courts whose glass walls give spectators a 360-degree view, will greatly improve the college\u2019s ability to host tournaments, McHugh said. This significant gift will also fund a new team room and renovations to existing locker room facilities and spectator seating.<\/span><\/p>\n Avery and Allison Bourke, the parents of a senior squash player and lead donors to the project, emphasized the relationship between excellence in campus facilities and excellence in student performance.<\/p>\n “It has been said\u00a0whether you think you can<\/i> or whether you think you can\u2019t<\/i>, you’re right,” Avery Bourke noted. “We hope that this new court will be a showcase for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ players who know they can<\/i>.”<\/p>\n Trustee and fellow lead donor Christopher Gorayeb \u201980 put it simply.\u00a0\u201cAs alumni, we should recognize an obligation to assist ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ wherever there is a need. I am happy to do so with this project.\u201d<\/p>\n Also making a significant philanthropic contribution to the project are the families of Walter and Kim Cabot P’11, P’13, P’17 and Marty and Nancy Cannon P’15.<\/p>\n For a program that already competes at an elite level \u2014 the women\u2019s team was ranked 12th in the nation in 2014 and the men\u2019s, 13th \u2014 \u201cthis gift is a game-changer,\u201d said head coach Pat Cosquer \u201997.<\/p>\n Cosquer said that the new court will improve tournament play at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ considerably. Most of today\u2019s college squash matches use a three-court system, where the No. 7, 8 and 9 matches are played on one court; 4, 5, 6 matches on a second court; and 1, 2, 3 matches on a third court. So host colleges with six courts can offer men’s and women’s matches simultaneously on three courts each.<\/p>\n ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ five-court setup, however, did not allow this efficient style of play, said Cosquer. By adding a sixth court, the squash program shortens match play by 90 minutes, giving students more time for other commitments.<\/p>\n \u201cOur athletes train at a high level, but they are students first,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re always mindful of how much time we ask them to spend away from academics.\u201d<\/p>\n The court also gives ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ the capacity to host more matches, reducing the need to travel and potentially saving the college several thousand dollars annually.<\/p>\n Cosquer, who currently conducts squash camps in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey, says that the new court will make it possible to host on-campus youth tournaments and camps, programs that can make valuable connections with potential ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For a program that already competes at an elite level, \u201cthis gift is a game-changer,\u201d said head coach Pat Cosquer \u201997.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":81128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"bates_author_byline_override":"Victoria Stanton","_estimated-read-time":"","_post-template":"","_header-color":"#000000","_photo-credit":"","_header-effect":"parallax","override_related_with_tag":"","_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[24,11009],"tags":[8112,8478],"class_list":["post-81127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-the-college","tag-squash","tag-the-bates-advancement-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81127"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120271,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81127\/revisions\/120271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}