The 1st Annual SBSOS Santa Barbara Open
November 17-19, 2006

All proceeds from last month’s Santa Barbara Open Squash Tournament - the event that has been a fundraiser for the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department DARE and SAL programs over the past 12 years - went to The Santa Barbara School of Squash (501c3 registered). This program is now into its second phase with one group of sixth-grade students and one from the seventh grade each coming in to the club once a week for an hour of squash coaching followed by an hour of educational tutoring and mentoring. The students were all recommended to us by their schools as having special needs. We have been absolutely delighted with their academic and squash improvement, and the general impact we seem to be making on their lives. We have witnessed this ourselves and also had great reports from their teachers and parents. I must thank particularly Katy Graham, Debbie Brown, Mike Lewis, David Farber and George Witter for the time and energy that they put in each week. I truly believe we are making a lasting difference in these kids’ lives, but we really need some funds to keep us going, so watch out for future events at which you can help, or come by SBAC on a Tuesday or Thursday from 3pm to 5pm to check out the School.

The tournament had a slightly lower entry than I had hoped for, but with 4 adult divisions of eight players each, and 12 players in the Junior event, everyone was guaranteed at least three matches.

The juniors played full best-of-five game matches for the first time at a tournament here with no special rules and impressed us all with their play and sportsmanship. The SBSOS kids who played each won at least one match which was a great boost for their confidence, while the more experienced SBAC juniors took the top three places. Charlie Mullaney (12) beat Patrick Ferroni (14) 3-0 in the final, while Jack Stegall (13) beat Conor McKenna (12) from LA for third place.

Jasyn Jefferies beat Charlie Mullaney for third place in Division 4, which was won by John Aspinall from SLO, who beat CATE School’s Nick Firestone 3-2 in the closest final of the day. SBAC’s Ferdy Geitner pulled off a surprise win in Division 3, beating three players ranked above him in the process, including SLO’s Andy Stewart in the final. SBAC dominated Division 2, with Debbie Brown beating Jonathan Siegel 3-0 in the final, and Matt Wilkinson taking third place. Steve Abbey beat George Witter for third place in Division 1, which was impressively won by Mike Lewis against Will Davis, a talented and higher ranked opponent from LA. Mike lost the first game but then extended the rallies to take advantage of his fitness, and changed the pace a little more to throw his opponent off his naturally faster-paced game. This worked right up until match ball in the fourth game when Mike lost his discipline and allowed his opponent to get back to 9-9 before finally closing out the match on a stroke. Well done Mike, and congratulations on your recent #9 ranking in the US Junior under 19 rankings!

A lack of sponsorship money meant that there was no Pro event this year but we hope to rectify that for 2007…see you then!

Robert Graham
SBAC Squash Professional

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