Squash Australia names Junior Men's Team
02-Jun-2010 - Squash Australia
The team is made up of Queensland pair Jake Alexander and Sam Fife and West Australian duo Walter Koteka and Jack Molloy.
Western Australia’s Jake Davidson is the non-travelling reserve.
The coach is former Australian squash great Rod Eyles, while his assistant will be Grant Gough from New South Wales.
Alexander, from Brisbane, will be making his second appearance in the Australian junior team after representing his country in Switzerland two years ago, but the other three are making their debuts.
Eyles, who also represented Australia twice at junior level, said Alexander’s experience would prove crucial in Quito.
“It’s massive for the team to have their number one already having experience of the situation,” Eyles said.
“I mean he’s a full time player at the AIS now so he has plenty of experience.”
Eyles said selectors had found it difficult to separate a large group of boys for the final positions and had held a mini-tournament to help them decide.
“Quite a lot of the guys are at the same level and they played a series of tough games -- it was a pretty strenuous selection series,” he said.
“Playing for spots on the Australian team doesn’t come around that often and for three of them it was their first opportunity to represent their country.
“They were all pretty keen to get that green and gold tracksuit.”
Molloy, 18, from Mullaloo said he had set his sights on making the team at the beginning of the year.
“At the start of the year I was playing a bit of squash and after the National Junior Series I was asked to join the National Talent Squad,” he said.
“Since then I have been training hard because I really wanted to get into the team.”
Molloy, Koteka and Davidson made the long trek to Brisbane to have an intensive week-long training camp with Eyles, which they said had helped their games enormously.
“It’s a great feeling,” Koteka said. “I’m just happy that all that training has paid off.”
Sixteen-year-old Fife is the youngster of the team and said he didn’t know what to expect in Ecuador.
“I don’t know anything about it, but it should be a great experience,” the Palm Beach-Currumbin State High School student said.
“I’m just very happy to be part of the team.”