At the JV Level, many squash athletes are driven to move up and earn a coveted Varsity Squash letter. Quite often, the “bottom rung” of the Varsity challenge ladder is within reach of these talented players and frustration is often concordantly high. Strong encouragement and coaching in managing expectations, devoting time to practice and in losing and winning gracefully is crucial.
Athletes usually want specific feedback and instruction on the finer points of their individual game and often see the individual before the team at this level, so nurturing an attitude of “team first, individual second” is essential. Creating camaraderie between players, respect for the game, the coaches, the referees and finessing “game-specific” scenarios supersedes individual game scores in JV.
The JV level team is comprised of 20 players (10 male, 10 female), and most competition is with other area high school Varsity teams. Each season, the JV team makes a trip to Chicago to compete against Chicago-area high school programs.