You, too, can be the guy in the back with the smartphone!

In the next segment of Get Hype!, squash scholar Ross Chapman introduces you to actual squasher Ramit Tandon, CC ’15, who claims that the squash team will dance for you if you show up to their matches. So you should definitely show up to their matches. Maybe you’ll even meet Ramit in person, but for now, get to know him below: 

Bwog: How’s everything going this year?

Ramit: It’s pretty good. Team bonding is great; we have a strong team and we have a great chance at the Ivy title as well as winning Nationals. I think our preseason training has been good, and we can’t wait to start the season and get a better idea of where we are. We finished third at the Ivy Scrimmages, which is a good spot to be in.

B: You got a preseason national ranking of #6. Comments?

R: It’s preseason. I think there are six or seven teams who are equal right now, so it’s hard to rank them sequentially. But anyone has a shot. Squash is a sport where Ivy and national competition are on the same level.

B: You’ve had a lot of personal success in squash. What’s it like coming from India with international competition to Columbia?

R: It’s been a great experience. Squash is an individual sport. Internationally, we have teams of about 4 players. But when I play for Columbia, it’s 9 guys playing, and 22 guys on the team, and the coaches. It’s a different feeling. It feels more like a team sport.

B: What’s it like being in more of a definite leadership role?

R: This program is very close to my heart. We started from the bottom. We’re five years in, it’s a very young program. When I first came to the school, we were starting from the beginning, and now we’re a strong team with a chance at national title. It’s been great looking at the way we’ve improved every year. Now we have 22 guys on the team, and everyone has a different personality. It’s hard to keep us all in the same zone, but we have two other captains and coaches, and they’re doing a great job.

B: The squash team is very international. What’s that experience like?

R: We have (I think) two American kids playing in the front nine. It’s a good experience. You mix with different people and different cultures. I used to travel for tournaments and I got a sense of these cultures in general in France and Egypt and England. When you travel to these places you have an idea of the culture, and then when you actually know people from there, you tend to learn more from them.

B: How do you think the team is bonding?

R: It’s great. When you train together, and you feel the pain, you tend to be very close. We have very similar schedules, since we all train at the same time, we have the same lifting time, and we eat before training and after training. We are forced to do a lot together. It’s great to see how people from different countries still bond very well. There are so many issues in the world political arena, but we have no issues like that.

B: How tough is training?

R: Training for every sport is hard. You have preseason training, which is a lot of physical stuff, which is the hard part. We were using the track up at Baker and the weights up there. It’s just building a general base. It’s the second hardest sport in the world, so we have to be ready.

B: How fast do the balls travel?

R: 175 mph is the fastest squash shot.

B: How fast can you hit it?

R: I’ve never measured, man. I would be, I think, 140-ish. I’ll let you know.

B: You have a Wikipedia page! What’s your interaction with it?

R: Someone made a page for me a few months ago, and one of my friends told me. They said, “You have a page!” and I said, “Really, man?” I don’t do anything on the page, I don’t read it often. I just see the information. Some of it is incorrect. My friends keep up on it and make fun of me and change some stuff on it. But I’ve never edited it.

B: If there were one game you could have a lot of fans at, which would it be?

R: We play Yale at home. That’s the big one, and that could be for the Ivy title. It’s in January [on Saturday the 10^th].

B: What makes squash exciting? Why should we be there?

R: It’s a hard game to follow. It’s fast, we use small balls. If you don’t understand the rules, it’s really complicated. But once you get the game, it’s a lot of fun. There are many angles, a lot of tactical play. A lot of soft shots, a lot of hard shots. You know [basketball guard] Maodo Lo? We’re friends now, and he came to watch me play against Harvard. He said it’s similar to basketball in a way. There’s a lot of deception with the balls in both sports. If you can connect the sports in a way, you’ll understand squash and enjoy it.

B: What do you do outside of sports and studies?

R: It’s hard. I played a squash individual tournament last weekend, we had Ivy Scrimmages this weekend, and the weekend before I was at the US Open, that’s a professional tournament, in Philadelphia. The weekend before that I was playing professionally in DC. Next week we have a match. The weekend after that I have an exhibition match in Ohio with the best player in America. It’s great, but it’s a lot of time. I also hang out with my friends. We live in the squash suite in EC, so we get to do stuff together.

B: Do you have a message to get out to Columbia?

R: It’s a fun sport. If you watch it, you’ll really enjoy it. We’re going be a good team this year, so come out and support us. We promise you’ll have a good time! We’ll entertain you. We’ll get people to dance for you, we’ll do anything.

B: Wait, really?

R: Yeah! We have 11 people playing, 11 entertaining. We can make them dance. If you promise me people will come, we can make people dance. We also give out free jerseys and food and stuff like that.

B: Which is more pressure: CSA nationals or finals week?

R: Finals week. Because it’s less fun. CSA’s, it’s pressure, but you enjoy it. The classes I really enjoy, I like studying for, but… I think most athletes would say that finals week is harder.

[Interview edited for brevity]

Ramit Tandon via Columbia University Athletics/Gene Boyars

Wait! Watch this promotional video from the squash team!