Wellesley College Squash To Compete As A Club Sport Beginning In 2017-18

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Wellesley College squash will compete as a club sport beginning in the 2017-18 season. The Wellesley College Department of Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics (PERA) will continue to support squash as a club sport which allows for the team's continued opportunity to play a competitive schedule. In addition, the club squash team will continue to practice and play matches at the Dana Hall School and will be immediately incorporated as one of the 10 club sports supported through the Recreation program, including as a member of the club sport council in 2017-18.

"Squash has enjoyed a rich tradition at Wellesley, dating back to its beginnings as a club sport in 1940," said Bridget Belgiovine, Wellesley's Director of Athletics and Chair of the PERA Department. "Wellesley is proud of that tradition. However, despite the difficulty of this decision, moving squash to club status is most appropriate given the sport's national trend. Our students will continue to benefit from their experiences as club sport athletes with support from the PERA Department's Recreation Program."

Since 2010, the PERA Department has assumed oversight for several successful intercollegiate club sports, including: archery, equestrian, ice hockey, nordic skiing, rugby, ultimate frisbee, and water polo, and support for these programs has contributed to their annual competitive success, both regionally and nationally. Just last year, both the archery and water polo teams competed at club nationals, while the equestrian and ultimate frisbee teams qualified for regional competition. The club squash team will continue to have an opportunity to participate in national postseason competition governed by the Collegiate Squash Association.

Wellesley most recently competed at the club level from 2005-2007, prior to being reinstated at the varsity level during the 2007-2008 season. As part of Wellesley's commitment to reinstate varsity squash, the PERA Department entered into a partnership with Dana Hall to share in the use of four regulation squash courts, as no future viable plans were in place to upgrade non-regulation on-campus facilities at the Keohane Sports Center. In addition, a new PERA Faculty/Head Squash Coach was hired. Wellesley had hoped that the reinstatement of squash as a varsity program would contribute to the growth of the sport at the NCAA varsity level, as collegiate women's squash had been classified as an 'emerging sport' by the NCAA at the time Wellesley reinstated the program. Unfortunately, this has not been the case.

Women's squash was removed from the NCAA's emerging sport list in 2015, after failing to gain NCAA championship status (requiring a minimum of 40 varsity programs) within 10 years, while also failing to show steady progress toward that goal. Squash had been on the NCAA's list of emerging sports for women since the initial recommendation was released by the NCAA's Gender Equity Task Force in 1994. Squash is not the first sport to fall short of the 40-school requirement for emerging sports, as archery, badminton, synchronized swimming and team handball have also been removed from the list over the past 23 years.

Squash was the only non-NCAA sponsored sport offered as a varsity program at Wellesley, as the sport is governed by the Collegiate Squash Association, and currently only 19 of the NCAA's 451 Division III (4.3 percent) members sponsors varsity squash. In total, there are just 30 varsity squash programs across all three NCAA Divisions and varsity squash sponsorship among Seven Sisters institutions has also declined to only three teams since the 2015-16 academic year.

"Given the current sport culture of squash," said Belgiovine. "our commitment and support for its continued success is best achieved at the club level at Wellesley."