Featured Player: Chris Kogon

Our thanks to Allan Kogon, Christine's husband, for contributing to this Featured Player article. Christine Kogon has always been a gifted athlete with natural racquet ability. At York University, Chris took up Squash because there were no indoor tennis facilities for her to continue playing on. She quickly made York’s T&D ladies team and played in the number one position. From there, she was selected to be on the Ontario ladies training team which groomed players for the Provincial team. She trained under Tony Swift, whom Squash Ontario has recognized as a builder of squash.From her time at York as an undergraduate until after she completed her Master’s degree in Astrophysics and started a career in teaching, she played for the York team, commuting from Georgetown to York many times a week for training and competition. Around 1978 the local Georgetown club enlarged to accept female members and she switched to her local club. There she played on the Men’s T&D teams, which on one occasion won the league championship in its division!Within the club, she won the woman’s open championship 17 years in a row. At one point the women complained that she was so strong that she should not play in the women’s event and that she should only play in the men’s events! While most of her contemporaries have dropped out of the squash world, Christine continues to compete in tournaments and for Georgetown's women's B team. Since there are usually not enough entries in her age division to form a tournament draw, she usually has to play down a number of age divisions.Notwithstanding that she can spot a decade to her opponents, she is currently the winner of the improvised woman’s 58 and over division. Two weeks ago she competed in the Ontario Open Squash Championships. Since not enough masters players had signed up, the organizers asked her to play in the Ladies C division. There she had to defeat a 22 and a 24 year old (both former varsity squash team players) among others, to go undefeated and win the Ladies C Championship. She is a truly inspirational squash player for her level of play and her durability.