- Squash a family affair for Aussie girls

Published: 28 Oct 2007 - 07:35 by rippa rit

Updated: 28 Oct 2007 - 07:38

Subscribers: Log in to subscribe to this post.

That is a good story to read the comments by the Grinham girls when they were leading into the finals. In spite of the fierce competition they are remaining great mates. Their parents, John and Davina, must be very proud of their achievements.

You know we talk about the champions, as Adz did in his recent post, but hey there is a lot of effort and attention given to these players in their early years, and in particular when they cannot drive, live out of the metropolitan area, play tournaments, attend squads, have school work to do, play local fixtures during the week. We are talking about the years from 8 - 17 years of age when they are very dependant on family, mates, mentors, coaches to foster their needs to a nationally ranked level. These kids were knee high to a grasshopper, put in a giant sized effort to reach their pinnacle. It reminded me too that Natallie used to tag along with Rachael and did not get the squash bug until I would say, the turning point, at the Under 15 Australian Teams Championships in Perth - to me it seems like a message like "I can do this" came into her head.......a success story that took 20 years to attain....and that is persistence, care, and patience in my book from a whole team of supporters..

Rachael's results in the last few months have shown she has done some extra work to lift her game, and taking the matches in less time, with better scores; that in itself means she is fresher when it comes to the final matches, not having spent so much time slogging it out on court. From Rachael's comments she got inspired by the fact that she was slipping down the ladder, and did not like to see the new bunch of girls climbing over her, eg Nicol David, and then Natallie.

This is the true spirit of a champion; probably the sort of logic that makes these ex champs make a comeback.