Sultana flashing some national hardware with another Ivy squasher

As part of our continuing series on Columbia’s athletic promise- its existence and what you should do with that information- today we bring you an interview with Colette Sultana CC ’17. Colette and Sports Editor Ross Chapman talk squash, the upcoming season, and achieving that mythical Columbia work/life balance with sports tossed into the mix. 

Bwog: Believe it or not, most people haven’t seen a squash game. What makes it exciting?

Colette: This is hard, because I’m a bit biased. It’s a room. You’re basically inside a room with four walls. And you have to see what you can do with that. There are so many shots that you can play and so many ways to make it difficult for your opponent, it’s hard to imagine. It’s amazing how some people make the shots that they do, and they hit all the different walls. I watch the top players and sometimes even I say “Wow, how did he make that shot.” Sometimes you just mis-hit the racket or you hit the corner of the walls, and something happens that nobody could expect. It makes the game unpredictable, and dynamic.

B: Tell us about how the season has been so far.

C: The season started the middle of October. Preseason involves a lot of physical training and a lot of weight training just to get us ready for the season. Our first march was this weekend. It was the Ivy Scrimmages, which is just sort of a preparation for the season. It was a good way for us to have a first match without much pressure. We beat Dartmouth and Brown, and last year we hadn’t beaten them. That was a really good win for us.

B: How is the team expecting to improve this season?

C: This year we have some really good recruits, and we’re hoping to achieve a higher ranking then last year, we’re hoping to beat Dartmouth and Brown and Cornell, among the others. We’re just looking forward to having a team that’s constantly improving. The squash program is really young, but at the same time it’s really really good, so we just want more people to come.

B: What’s it like to travel with the team?

C: I really like it. The only hard thing about it is that you’re away for a long time and then you have to come back and write a 12-page paper. Other than that, it’s amazing, we bond when we’re travelling together. We talk about the matches, we talk about other things, and we get closer. We train together, but we all have our own lives. When we’re travelling, we spend so much time together. Last year we went to the Cayman Islands for our training trip, and that was just a really good team bonding trip. It was really fun.

B: Why and when did you pick up squash?

C: I started when I was nine. I used to play tennis, but I wasn’t very good. I said, “I want to try something else,” and some of my family used to play squash, so I went to an open day when I was living in Malta and I really enjoyed it. And then the coach that was taking care of us offered more training opportunities to me. When I was 11 I started training four, five times a week, and I started doing these European tournaments. Then when I was 16 I moved to boarding school in England. I spent two years there, training three to four hours a day. The players who used to play at my school are now globally ranked. So the school is really known for squash. I’m not at that level, but I’ve definitely made big improvements, and it paved the way for me to come to Columbia.

B: What is it like to go from the European circuit to the Ivy League?

C: I was at a boarding school at England where I was training about 4 hours a day, and I made a really big improvement there. And I used to also play tournaments in New York! There’s a lot of competition. Coming to Columbia was very different for me. It’s very rigorous, and it was tough for me to keep up the hours that I was doing, but at the same time it’s just a really reinvigorating experience. I can’t say that I’m playing the same kind of squash as I used to. To be honest, the game is very different. The training in America is much more based around strength, where in Europe the game is more about technique shots. It’s still important to be fit, but we didn’t lift nearly as much.

B: Do you try to take your training from Europe and give it to others?

C: It’s important to see what works for everyone. When it comes to other people, it depends on who the player is. If I think technique is one of their strengths, and I’m giving a player advice for a game, I’ll tell them what I see. Some people are really fit and really command the court, and we make sure that they work on their strengths so they can play their game. I guess that’s what the coaches are working towards.

B: What do you do to relieve some stress from sports and school?

C: I’ve got some really good friends at Columbia, so when I’m not playing, I normally just hang out with my friends. And one of the things that really made me want to come to Columbia is that I love the city. And I also love eating, I love eating different foods. I wanted to come to the city and explore all the different things there are here, especially the restaurants. I guess that Smorgasburg is pretty well known, but you find some weird things there. I had the ramen burger, I can’t get over how good that was. I also like Max Brenner’s. Obviously.

B: Can people spectate your matches? Where can we find you?

C: We don’t use Dodge, we use a facility called Street Squash [on 116^th Street between 5^th Ave and Malcolm X Blvd), it’s about twenty minutes away. There’s plenty of room for spectators, and everyone is welcome to come support; it’s very much appreciated.

B: Is there one game you want people to come to?

C: For the girls’ team, the key home matchups are Cornell and Brown.

B: Do you have any message you want to get out to the Columbia community?

C: For squash, we are an upcoming program. It’s three or four years old. We’re getting more and more recruits. And we’re top ten in the rankings at the moment. The boys’ team has a chance to win a title, too. It’s in the next couple of years for us. I hope that Columbia students also get excited. It’s hard because it’s a small sport, but there are exciting things coming up.

B: Which is more pressure, CSA Squash Championships or finals week?

C: Probably finals week. I definitely enjoy the CSA Nationals a lot more.

[Note: Interview edited for brevity]

Gold all of my bowls via Columbia University Athletics