Manitoba’s Miller back on court Pan Am Games gold medallist comes home for Canadian Masters Squash Championship By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 5:04 PM CST Friday, Jan. 26, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/01/2024 (1004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The last time Alana Miller was serving up wins on the squash court was 14 years ago in India.

Miller’s last dance came at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, after which she retired as the No. 30-ranked female player in the world and moved to Toronto to attend medical school.

A busy career and two kids have largely kept the 43-year-old Winnipeg product out of the game since that time, aside from the occasional friendly against her husband, but the desire to play competitively never left the former No. 1 player in Canada.

That’s why Miller’s Manitoban teammates whisked her out of retirement this week, for a chance to help the province capture its first Canadian Masters Squash Championship.

The national co-ed tournament began Friday and will conclude Sunday at the Winnipeg Winter Club.

Manitoba hasn’t won the event since it expanded from the Western Canadian Championship in 2009, but the province is courting two teams this weekend, one of which (Manitoba 1) now boasts four former national champions with the addition of Miller.

“I’ve wanted to get back into it since I left, it’s just that life circumstances didn’t really allow. This was the perfect excuse,” said Miller, a three-time Canadian women’s champ.

“Extra special that it’s in Winnipeg, and then extra, extra special that somehow, even when I live in Toronto, I’m still able to play for Manitoba.”

“Extra special that it’s in Winnipeg, and then extra, extra special that somehow, even when I live in Toronto, I’m still able to play for Manitoba.”–Alana Miller

Manitoba 1 will duel Nova Scotia and a team from the Canadian Armed Forces, which is made up of players from across the country, in the preliminary round-robin. Manitoba 2 is pooled with Alberta and British Columbia in another. The last group of Quebec, Saskatchewan and reigning champion Ontario round out the nine-team tournament.

Teams are made up of seven players — four men and three women — each of which is designated a division for the week. Male players are assigned to one of the 40+, 45+, 50+ or 55+ divisions while each female player represents the 40+, 45+ and 50+ divisions.

Like Miller, Trevor Borland, the top-ranked player in Manitoba, is playing in the tournament for the first time.

“It is a team event. I wanna say 90, 95 per cent of the events we play in are individual,” said Borland, 47, who doubles as the tournament director.

“It’s a unique feeling in an individual sport to be part of a team. You sit there and you watch the matches, you’re cheering on, you’re coaching your teammates… it almost feels like, in a way, a good extra bit of pressure — a little bit of pressure you don’t normally feel because you’re just out there for yourself.

“It’s a unique feeling in an individual sport to be part of a team. You sit there and you watch the matches, you’re cheering on, you’re coaching your teammates… ”–Trevor Borland

“It’s a nice little twist, that’s for sure.”

Despite his standing atop the province’s rankings, Borland called Miller the ringer of Manitoba 1 this week. In any case, he likes Manitoba’s chances this week with what he believes is a stacked roster.

Borland and Evan Mancer have each won five Canadian men’s age category championships and Danielle Parent is also a former age group women’s champion. Miller’s decorated stretch between 2004-2008 that includes three national championships and two medals, one gold, at the Pan American Games speaks for itself.

“My expectations, I know that I’ll have a lot of fun. I’m really hoping that I don’t get injured because squash is a very physical sport and I haven’t been training — I’ve been doing other physical activities but to get back on the court is actually quite difficult,” said Miller, who has ramped up her training in recent weeks to prepare for the tournament.

While the competition among the masters will be high this weekend, Borland noted the sport’s biggest improvement in Manitoba has come with its younger players.

Participation among junior squash players has nearly doubled since the pandemic and junior programs through Squash Manitoba have waiting lists for the first time in years.

“In terms of junior numbers, it’s really positive,” Borland said. “It’s not necessarily as high level as we’ve ever seen right now, but it’s as many kids as we’ve seen in a long long time.”

“There’s a little bit of traction going but we’re hoping that one day those can be transitioned over into what they call international squash courts, which is the squash court that really everybody knows today.”–Trevor Borland

Meanwhile, numbers among adult players still haven’t rebounded — a phenomenon professionals across the country are still trying to understand, Borland said. One potential fix, he proposed, could be updating the courts at the University of Manitoba, which are designed for hardball squash — a style that is hardly played anymore.

“If you’re not a member at the Winter Club or the Squash Club, you can play at the UofW, you can play at the UofM, but it’s not the same,” Borland said.

“There’s a little bit of traction going but we’re hoping that one day those can be transitioned over into what they call international squash courts, which is the squash court that really everybody knows today.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam