Many families at Open Squash have found a shared love for the game, but it’s just possible that the Antrims are up there with those who have got the most joy together over the last few years.
“When you look at the photographs from that bronze tournament,” says Taylor Antrim of the recent season opener at Open Squash, “we're all there watching William, and everyone is obviously so overjoyed. Squash has been a real gift to our family.”
Taylor is a writer and editor in New York, who’s been playing at Open Squash since 2020. His daughter, Vivian (11) was in kindergarten when he first saw a flier at her school from a Brooklyn juniors program run by Josh Easdon (now Head of Junior Development at Open Squash). “Want to play squash? Sign up for JoshSquash!”
“This was at the time in our kids’ lives when they’re becoming actual people,” he remembers. “Viv was only five, but it was that moment when you could imagine her doing big kid things. This whole world of possibilities opened up.”
Taylor wrote to Josh, and signed up Vivian for his program, and then, two years later, he signed up his son, William (who is now 9). His wife Liz also picked up the game when the whole family followed Josh to Open Squash.
“To begin with, neither of our children could find the ball with their racket,” Taylor said. “But Josh and Ashgar (Abbas, assistant coach) have this wonderful way of teaching the fundamentals and keeping everyone interested. And you see these jumps in skill. Vivian won her green division at last year’s club championship in a very dramatic final. It was a thrilling match.”
Squash has become a hot topic of conversation around the family dinner table: “For a French class project, Vivian had to ‘introduce’ her favorite celebrities in French, and she made sure to include Victor Crouin and Josh Easdon (along with Machine Gun Kelly). Thanks to Open Squash, she and William have met Ali Farag, Victor, and Paul Coll at the Tournament of Champions (where William got Coll’s headband as a souvenir). We all watched the U.S. Open finals together at home (on my SquashTV account). I never would have thought that it would become such a major part of our lives.”
Another thing Taylor likes about the program is that the juniors atmosphere at Open Squash is not stressful. “Our children love their time at practice. It’s such a gift for a 9 and 11-year-old to have two or three days a week after school with no stress at all,” he said.
Thanks for sharing your family story, Taylor!