It’s Women’s Squash Week, and Open Squash is delighted to be one of the four New York Squash communities hosting a women’s round robin, on Friday September 20, in celebration.
Open Squash assistant coach Ciara Richards is hosting the evening. Born and raised in Wales, Ciara began playing squash at age five, and never stopped.
“It's very important and it matters a lot for women to be able to play with other women and other girls and to build that community,” she said. “We open our women’s round robins up to not just people from open squash. They’re for women all over New York who want to play, and we’re open to every skill level.”
Ciara loves the women’s round robins. “At the end you see women exchanging their phone numbers because they want to play with each other again. There's not that many opportunities to play with a group of women.”
Even at the junior levels in squash, Ciara has always been frustrated with a lack of gender parity in squash. Often, junior squash classes are skewed more male, although recently Ciara hosted a junior class with a majority of girls and was delighted
“My entire time playing squash I pretty much only played with men in Wales,” she said. “And I would have loved to have a bunch of girls to play with. It was only really when I came to university.”
She’s noticed that women’s squash at Open Squash, while competitive, is also social, with many women coming along to find a sense of community as well as to play the game. “I've just noticed that they care a lot less about winning and proving they’re better than everyone else, and they seem to care more about making friends, enjoying themselves, working out, having fun,” she said.
As a child, Ciara often found that men players at her club didn’t want to play her, and if they did, they didn’t like to lose. Sometimes she’s asked by men when there’ll be a men’s-only event, and she jokingly responds that squash as a whole can sometimes feel like that.
“It’s so important that we’re intentional about bringing more women into the game and making them feel welcome and included,” she said. “That’s something men players can also think about, like, it should be a pleasure to get beaten by a young woman who’s better than you, I used to do it all the time. Check your ego at the door, you know?”
Ciara is passionate about broader inclusion in sport, too, and has just come from enjoying the Paralympic games in Paris. “Living in New York and taking luggage on the subway, you’re often struck by how few elevators there are for people with disabilities,” she said. “And that makes you reflect on how far we have to go when it comes to making sure our environments are as inclusive as they can be for everyone.”
Ciara was particularly inspired by attending the Howe Cup in Philadelphia, a huge yearly women’s squash tournament. Apprehensive about playing squash after college, she
Went along to the Howe Cup and found it “absolutely incredible,” she said.
“Seeing how excited people get for that every year gives me a lot of hope that women do want to compete, they want to be competitive, they want to win, they want to play team sports and perform,” she said. “They want to travel to do sports. It's it's not just something that men want.
The Howe Cup is approaching in November and Ciara is running weekly practices for Open Squash members. She’s also encouraged to see more women showing up to play squash at the mixed round robins at Open Squash.
“We’ve got great women coaches at Open Squash, too, with Jana, Thaisa, and I, and we’re creating that ideal environment for women and girls to participate and be successful in the game,” she said.