College squash’s most storied rivalry? Origins of Harvard vs. Trinity

College squash’s most storied rivalry? Origins of Harvard vs. Trinity
By Lukas Weese
Jul 5, 2023

Editor’s note: This is part of a series in which The Athletic highlights offbeat sports you may not have known are contested at the college level. Follow the full series here.

It was Feb. 26, the day of the national collegiate men’s team squash championship final. A storied squash rivalry was renewed when Harvard faced Trinity — and Harvard senior Marwan Tarek was preparing his losing speech.

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The final took place on Trinity campus’ George A. Kellner squash courts. The facility features 10 international-size courts, with three color-paneled walls for spectator viewing along with pyramid-style seating for up to 500 fans.

Amanda Sobhy — a Harvard women’s squash alum ranked No. 7 in the world in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) — calls it the “lion’s den.” The noise was so raucous that day that Tarek needed to shout to speak with Harvard coach Mike Way. Fans nestled up against the glass in the faces of the Harvard players.

But Tarek wasn’t concerned about the atmosphere in the sell-out crowd; his focus remained on the one-on-one duel with the opponent next to him.

Nine matches took place, each in a best-of-five game format, and Trinity got off to a blazing 3-1 lead. The No. 3 and No. 9 matches went to a fifth and deciding game, with Trinity in a position to secure a fourth point.

A small part of Tarek believed. He was a part of Harvard’s national championship (Potter Cup) win a year earlier against Penn, which included Crimson senior Victor Crouin roaring back from 2-0 down to win his match.

Tarek recalled advice he had received from Way: “When the stakes get high, just stay the same.”

Harvard won the No. 3 and No. 9 matches in the fifth game. The score was 3-3 heading to the final wave. With Harvard getting a fourth point, it needed one win in the last two games to capture the championship.

Tarek held the position of closer. As he had before, Tarek relished the opportunity. He didn’t do anything more. He stayed the same.

Tarek won 11-7, 4-11, 11-5, 11-5 over Trinity’s Mohamed Sharaf. The Trinity crowd went silent. Harvard won its fourth Potter Cup in a row.

“I had that silent attitude,” Tarek said. “I’m not going to ride up the gravity of the crowd. I’m not going to intimidate anyone. I’m just going to win in peace.”

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Squash is not an NCAA-sponsored sport. The College Squash Association (CSA) is the governing body that oversees men’s and women’s collegiate squash in the United States. The first men’s singles college squash tournament occurred in 1932, and the first women’s singles squash championship was in 1965.

College squash has a rich history. And despite the sport’s evolution — in its rules, in its competitiveness — Harvard and Trinity remain the standard.

 Harvard has won the Potter Cup 37 times. (Michael T. Bello / CSA)

Sobhy could have turned pro. She was a four-time U.S. junior national champion and the first American to capture the junior world championship in 2010.

But Sobhy wanted to play squash while getting a world-class education. She attended North Shore High in Glen Head, N.Y., an unconventional path compared to squash athletes who attend private schools.

When Sobhy learned Way was the squash coach at Harvard, she wanted to check it out. She ended up loving the campus, the diversity of the team and Way’s experience coaching top players.

Several pro coaches recommended Sobhy turn pro and said her squash would drop if she went to college. Sobhy proved the opposite.

“I wanted to show people that, hey, you can do both,” Sobhy said.

Since winning the inaugural men’s college squash tournament, the Crimson have been the model for excellence in the sport. The men’s program has won the Potter Cup 37 times since 1942. The women’s program has won the national championship (Howe Cup) 22 times since 1973.

Trinity’s first season in men’s squash was 1941-42. The women’s team started in 1972. The school has around 2,200 students, more than 20,000 fewer than Harvard. Yet the Bantams have thrived in college squash.

Wendy Bartlett (the women’s coach for 39 years) and Paul Assaiante (the men’s coach for 30 years) became Trinity’s squash coaches at a pivotal moment for the program. During the mid-1990s, then-Trinity president Evan Dobelle wanted to put Bantams squash on the map to compete against Ivy League schools like Harvard.

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The “experiment,” as Assaiante calls it, was a concerted effort to recruit international players to come to Trinity specifically to play squash.

Soon, the small school started to flourish in the sport. The Bantams have 17 men’s squash national championships. From 1999 to 2011, Trinity won 13 consecutive CSA national titles, which included 252 consecutive wins. The Trinity women’s program has three Howe Cups.

Assaiante looks for “character” in the squash athletes he recruits. It has allowed Trinity to become one of college squash’s powerhouse programs.

“I’m looking for kids that will buy into putting their own accomplishments to the side for the team,” Assaiante said.

During the season, Harvard and Trinity squash athletes practice six days a week. This consists of on-court squash training, lifting and drills. Once practice concludes, players get together for a meal, hit the library to finish homework, then go to sleep and repeat it the next day. The schools have official matches one to two times a week during the season, which lasts from November to March.

Before each match, coaches present their starting lineups: one through nine, representing the nine matches per game. How is the lineup determined? Enter challenge matches at practice. These exhibitions are a part of the ladder system, which is the ranking of the roster.

The number on the ladder symbolizes your place on the team. If you hold one of the top two spots, you’re one of the best players. If you’re No. 10, you’re fighting for your college squash life.

This creates a tense pressure cooker at practice. On the best teams, like Harvard and Trinity, the challenge matches can be the most competitive of the season.

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“When we’re out there, (we’re) playing like there’s no love lost,” Harvard senior George Crowne — who remembers “fist fighting” a couple of teammates on the court — said. “As soon as the match is over, you take your 10 minutes, you talk about what each of you could have done better and you’re back to being best friends.”

The ladder system prepares the athletes for later moments in the season. When it’s a championship match against a rival, players can lean on the lessons learned during practice.

“We need everyone on the top nine to be ready to compete because each match counts just as much as the others,” Harvard rising senior Marina Stefanoni said.

Way preaches the importance of mental preparation to his athletes. This is accomplished through visualization and getting into a winner’s mindset. Squash is filled with pressure moments. When a match is on the line, Way trusts his players to deliver, believing they have the mental edge over the competition.

“When we play Penn, Princeton or Trinity, they’ve been there so many times before,” Way said. “It doesn’t mean that they’re comfortable, but they are relatively comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation.”

 Harvard’s Marwan Tarek (front) earned the title-clinching point for his team against Trinity’s Mohamed Sharaf. (Michael T. Bello / CSA)

Ali Farag never thought of studying abroad. The Egyptian squash player wanted to be close to home in Cairo with his family.

That changed when Farag visited Harvard in 2011. Way and the coaching staff welcomed Farag. He described the treatment as “VIP.”

Two days after returning home from the Harvard interview, the 2011 Egyptian revolution began. Farag needed to secure himself. Going to Harvard meant security and an opportunity to play squash.

“My parents sent the message that squash is an extremely important sport but it is a secondary thing,” Farag said. “Academics are always going to be the priority, and this is the route you’re going to go through.”

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Farag’s journey to Harvard represents a growth in international students playing squash at American colleges. 53 countries were represented by CSA players in 2022-23. USA led (607), followed by Canada (50), India (50), Egypt (45) and Malaysia (20). According to internal CSA survey data following the 2021-22 season, 43.5 percent of CSA players identified as “non-White.”

“Being an international athlete and going to America — experiencing that different culture, that team environment — it does nothing but strengthen college squash,” Harvard women’s squash alum Georgina Kennedy, from the U.K., said.

Farag and Kennedy now play professionally for the PSA. Farag ranks No. 1 in the men’s PSA and is a four-time world champion. Kennedy is No. 8 in the women’s PSA, becoming the first Englishwoman to win gold in singles squash at the Commonwealth Games.

Their stellar college careers laid the foundation for success in the pros. Farag won two individual national titles. In his senior season, he finished 20-0, leading Harvard to its first team title in 16 years in 2014. Kennedy won the individual championship three times and helped Harvard win its sixth straight Howe Cup.

Farag’s and Kennedy’s collegiate careers at Harvard prove that international students can thrive in professional squash while getting an Ivy League education.

“You become a better person — more accepting, compassionate, hardworking,” Farag said. “When you go on tour, you’re less angry at the world.”

In November, a new collegiate squash season will begin. Challenge matches. Ladders. Rivalries. Championships. All of it will be on display.

There are 66 varsity squash teams (34 men, 32 women) in the CSA, and according to commissioner David Poolman, the goal is to have 40 men’s teams and 40 women’s teams by 2030. He knows this is ambitious. The COVID-19 pandemic halted the initial stages of this initiative; in 2020, Brown, George Washington and Stanford cut their varsity squash programs.

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In 2021, Georgetown (women’s), Chatham (women’s) and Denison (men’s/women’s) added four teams total. Stanford reinstated its women’s varsity squash program on May 18, 2021. The CSA is chatting with colleges across the country to find schools that want to elevate squash to the varsity level. Newer programs such as Virginia (2017) and Drexel (2011) are rising in the varsity squash ranks. Last season, Drexel’s men’s team finished No. 5 in the CSA rankings and the Virginia women’s team placed No. 4.

“We want to build out those opportunities geographically so that there are more opportunities for young players to access it in college beyond just the Ivy League and NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) schools,” Poolman said.

Farag, Kennedy and Sobhy reflect fondly on their time in college squash. For every pro match, Farag has the Harvard shield embedded on the back of his jersey. They continue to perform at the professional level. Greatness follows them worldwide.

But the notoriety doesn’t compare to the lion’s den atmosphere of a college squash match.

Nothing will.

(Top photo: Michael T. Bello / CSA)

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Lukas Weese

Lukas Weese is a Staff Editor of News at The Athletic. Before The Athletic, Lukas was a freelance sports journalist, working as an associate editor at Sportsnet, an OHL reporter for the Toronto Star and had bylines in outlets such as ESPN's Andscape, USA Today, Complex, Yahoo Sports, GOLF Magazine, Just Women's Sports and Raptors Republic. Lukas also does freelance play-by-play broadcasting. Follow Lukas on Twitter @Weesesports