When you think about typical high school sports, squash is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. But then again, St. Michaels University School is hardly typical, either.
Unlike the vast majority of BC and Canadian schools, SMUS features a burgeoning squash program, with 55 student athletes playing on the Senior Squash team and another 50 from the SMUS Middle School campus involved in the sport.
The primary factor behind this success is the presence of the Brian Graves Squash Courts, which have been part of the campus since 2008, offering four squash courts. But there’s much more to the story. The squash program, now run by first-year Head Coach Grace Thomas, has been highly successful in developing elite-level players and helping them move on to post-secondary squash careers and international experience in the sport.
“The quality of players coming out of SMUS is a good representation of the strong program here,” says Thomas, who took over from previous Head Coach Vicky Lust this past fall after serving four years as an Assistant Coach.
Indeed, the current SMUS Squash team includes a trio of nationally ranked players, led by Lucas Quon, a Grade 12 student who is among the top eight U19 players in Canada. Last month, Quon competed in the British Junior Open in Birmingham, England – the world’s most prestigious junior tournament – where he finished with four match wins against two losses and beat No. 1-ranked players from Denmark, Slovakia and England.
Over this past weekend in Victoria, Quon earned a seventh-place finish in the U19 Division of the Pacific North West Junior Championships, hosted in part by SMUS. Quon lost in the quarter-finals to the No. 1-ranked player in Canada who was also the eventual tournament winner.
Like others before him, Quon is looking to pursue a post-secondary squash career and is considering both the University of Western Ontario and Queen’s University. In addition to pursuing victories on the squash courts, he will also be seeking a commerce degree.
Quon, now 18 and a Lifer at SMUS, started playing squash in Grade 6. “This program has been really rewarding for me,” he says. “The coaching is really good and it’s nice that you can start so young in the sport at SMUS... I would say it’s awesome.”
Among the other standouts with this year’s SMUS Squash team are Anderson Brown, a Grade 10 student, ranked in the top five U17 players in the country, and Roshan Pathak, a Grade 11 who is among Canada’s top 15 players in the U17 category. Brown finished third in the Pacific North West Junior Championships, making it to the U17 semifinals without dropping a single game, before falling to the No. 1 seed in four games.
Having top-ranked players at SMUS isn’t new for the school’s squash program. For example, 2021 grad Alex Brown, older sister of Anderson, is in her sophomore year studying and playing at Amherst College in Massachusetts. And 2018 SMUS grad Brooke Herring attended Drexel University in Philadelphia on a squash scholarship.
Coach Thomas is a SMUS grad herself (2016) who is now Top 10 ranked nationally at the Senior level. In her Grade 12 year at the school, she made Team Canada for the World Junior championships in Eindhoven and the Pan-Am Games in Philadelphia. She went on to complete a Bachelor of Science at UVic last May while she served as an Assistant Coach at SMUS.
“Squash was and still is a big part of my life,” says Thomas, a Victoria native who was attracted to SMUS in Grade 10 by the squash program, coaching and facilities. “It was huge for me coming here because there were kids on the team who were nationally and provincially ranked. It helped elevate my game.”
“I am thrilled to be leading one of the biggest junior programs in the country,” Thomas adds. “It's a full circle – during my time at SMUS, the squash program allowed me to develop as an athlete and now I am proud to be leading the same program that provided me with so many opportunities.”
Nicole Bunyan, a 2011 SMUS grad and a Pan-Am Games silver medallist in squash, says being a member of the SMUS Squash team has proven extremely beneficial for her as well.
“Being a student athlete has provided me with so many life skills – such as discipline, accepting criticism, and commitment, not to mention time management!” Bunyan says. “The sport itself has given me countless connections all over the world, and allowed me to develop tangential skills – such as public speaking, communications, coaching and personal branding.”
Playing top-level squash is no small commitment. SMUS athletes train four times a week and many also play and train outside of school team sessions. Like most sports, it’s also fun, as well as a way to stay fit, make long-lasting friends and develop a sense of perseverance.
“We travel as a team, we train as a team,” says Thomas, who works with SMUS assistant coaches Ryan Chow ‘21 and Sam Krich. “But squash is really a mental sport, because you’re out there alone. You’ve really got to be able to dig yourself out of a hole and get back to playing well all on your own.”
