Ince says of squash team’s preparation for Junior Pan Am
The Guyana Squash Association (GSA) revealed two weeks ago that a playoff tournament has been staged to scout a team for the Junior Pan American Games. From that competition, the top two players were given the opportunity to represent Guyana at the Games, while another player, who is overseas, was selected on merit.
As such, the squash team, comprising Shomari Wiltshire, Michael Alphonso and Samuel Ince-Carvalhal, is in full preparation mode with less than a month to go before the competition. Two-thirds of the Squash team are preparing locally, with long-serving Squash Coach Carl Ince.
Looking back, the coach opined that the playoffs brought out the best in the local players. “They had the play and they got the chance to play in a league, and that exposed them to a lot of different types of players, which is what they needed. I think the playoffs made them train harder,” the coach said.
He went on to explain, “If you’re told that you’re in the team, you’re going to Pan Am, you wouldn’t train as hard as knowing you’ve got to prove you’re better than the next person. So, I think the playoff was wonderful, it was well done.”
Thus far, Ince says, preparation has been going well, and he remains optimistic about what the boys can produce in Cali, Colombia, based on the hard work they’ve been doing.
“So far, preparation is going very well. After COVID, we thought that, well, the time to prepare was so short, but then we have to realise that the other people have the same problem, right? But, so far, it’s been going very well; the boys are playing very, very, hard, they’ve worked hard, we’ve got some camps, and I think they will represent themselves very well,” Ince reported.
Owing to the long layoff due to the coronavirus pandemic, the coach disclosed, the boys had a bit of rust, but that ‘rust’ was remedied by pitting the boys against older competitors — a factor that should prepare them well for the Junior Pan Am’s Under-22 age limit.
The coach revealed, “We noticed that they were a bit ‘rusty’, and knowing that it takes ‘X’ amount of time to actually get back after being off so long, we did quick assessment and got things underway; and luckily for them, they had the senior players to compete with, to bring them up, because normally it would be under- 19s they would face, but now it’s gone to under-23.
“So, all we can expect is for them to play well, represent the country, and I think they’ll do that very well,” he added with optimism.
When quizzed about his expectations, Ince shared that all he is looking forward to is for the trio to go out and represent Guyana well, since he has no doubts that they are the best group of juniors in the Caribbean region.
“Having done so well in the Caribbean, it was good for them. And they deserved it, because I don’t think any team in the Caribbean right now – any junior team – can beat these boys. They’re doing very well,” he said.
On his expectation, he added, “As I said before, they’re not competing against under-19s, as they would normally, and the under-23, some of them are professionals. But they have to go there and play their best, and that will be good enough for us.
“As long as they represent themselves well and they don’t go there and say, ‘Oh, these boys are a lot older than us or better than us’. They just go in there and fight, I truly believe they will.”
Wiltshire, Ince-Carvalhal and Alphonso join 8 other Guyanese athletes across 4 other disciplines who are preparing for the November 25 – December 5 Games. Those athletes are: swimmer Aleka Persaud, boxers Alesha Jackman, Travis Inverary and Patrick Harvey, badminton players Priyanna Ramdhani and Akili Haynes, and table tennis players Miguel Wong and Jonathan Van Lange. (Jemima Holmes)
