Squash

When I was about to graduate middle school, my parents sat me down and said they needed to talk to me.

I was excited, I thought I was getting an awesome present, and the talk was about telling me how to use it responsibly. I'm not really sure what kind of graduation gift would have to come with a talk too, but at 13, I was still an optimistic person.

It turns out they wanted to talk about applying to college.

You see, my parents had been hearing this phrase "well-rounded". While I had good grades, volunteered here and there and attempted (but failed) to gain acceptance to a prestigious science program at my future high school, I didn't have much of an athletic pedigree.

Besides being the worst kid on the worst team in my local recreational soccer league from grades K through 5, my athletic activity was limited to walking to the bus stop and back every morning.

So my parents wanted to know an answer to a simple question: What sport did I want to play to play until I graduated high school?

Team sports were out of the question, I was way too uncoordinated, and didn't have enough raw talent to break in to anything like basketball or baseball. So it was limited to individual sports -- tennis, golf, and ... squash.

Squash, primarily played in commonwealth countries (and Egypt) is not very popular in the United States. It's similar to racquetball, but has a much faster pace. Luckily for me, there was a squash club about five minutes away from my house.

The answer was easy, I didn't know anybody who played squash, so if I failed on the court, I couldn't possibly be as humiliated as I would be at the local golf course.

I played squash for three years, I was even fairly good at it, which is more than I can say for most of my exploits, but once I got into college, I've played very sparingly with friends.

The other day, I was in Grand Central and I walked by J.P. Morgan's Tournament of Champions (the premier squash event in North America). I had heard about it before, but never made the effort to actually see some of the world's top players show off their skills.

Having a press pass on my person (I'm a reporter), I was able to get behind the scenes and talk to a bunch of former world champions, like Peter Nicol and Jonathan Power. It was surreal, and completely spur of the moment experience. These guys are amazing athletes, and I don't know how squash still isn't an olympic sport. The IOC needs to get on it.