The Auraria Squash Club in a combined effort with Mile High Squash not only taught students from Bryant-Webster K-8 school about the game of squash but also offered free tutoring to students.

“The program on Saturday (March 6) was our campus club, which is Auraria Squash Club, and we’re working together with another organization called Mile High Squash,” said Auraria Squash Club President Dean Bacalzo. “Mile High Squash is taking students from Bryant Webster, which is 90 percent Hispanic, under-privileged, under-addressed students, and we bring them on campus and offer them squash lessons and academic tutoring.”

Bacalzo said the squash lessons mainly focus on fundamentals of squash, while the academic tutoring can range anywhere from core subjects to practical life skills.

Ivon Hernandez, age 11, reacts as the rest of her group comes up with nicknames for her during a session of the Mile High Squash program March 6. Photo by Daniel Clements

“The academic varies, sometimes it’s math, sometimes it’s reading,” Bacalzo said. “The last time they were here it was about respect for people; how to show respect.”

This is the second year the squash club has hosted this event, and expects it to keep growing.

“This is the second batch of students, so last year we had them on campus as well,” said Bacalzo, an industrial design professor at Metro. “We’re in the development phase right now, so we only see the kids twice a week. We were just approved the partnership so in the fall we will start every Saturday as well as a couple days during the week.”

The purpose of the program is to encourage students to further their education while providing opportunities for advancement to students.

“Right now at Bryant Webster there is about a 20 to 25 percent success rate through high school,” Bacalzo said. “So, if we could up that to 75 percent then we’ll be pretty successful. If we can get them to come to Metro, then that is even better.”

Bacalzo went on to explain that through the squash club at Metro, the students will possibly have an opportunity to attend and play at an Ivy League school.

“We’re very well connected with the east coast schools,” Bacalzo said. “We might get one or two out of the 20 to attend an Ivy League school and play squash on a scholarship. That’s a big goal.”

The ASC was co-founded three years ago by Bacalzo, after he started playing the sport on a business trip to Taiwan, out of a storage closet in the Auraria Event Center.

Karen Hernandez lunges for the ball during a squash practice session with teacher David Klein March 6. Photo by Chancey Bush

“The squash room was actually a storage room,” Bacalzo said. “We very slowly started to gain back that other court so now we have the two. Then with Mile High, in the fall, we’re going to convert the racquetball courts to squash; so we’ll have four squash courts.”

Squash is a sport that resembles racquetball but is played much more like tennis, as it focuses around strategy instead of power.

“It’s really a mix of racquetball and tennis,” Bacalzo said. “The difference between racquetball and squash is that squash has some rules. [It’s] a lot about ball placement; a lot of it is making the other guy run until he gets too tired, then he makes a mistake. It’s almost like a game of chess in the room.”

The squash club is made up of eight team-members, comprised of students, faculty and staff, and plays other club squash teams from around the state.

“We play the clubs down at Lifetime Fitness in Parker, we play Cherry Creek [Athletic] Club members and then we just played Fountain Valley High School, a private boarding school in Colorado Springs,” Bacalzo said. “We have a series of club matches. It’s just a small community for squash but it’s building, we’re growing it.”

The squash team has played four club matches this year but is still in search of an ever-elusive first win. The team will play in the Evergreen International Tournament March 19-20 and will compete in the Colorado State Squash Championships in April at the Denver Athletic Club.