by James Zug
Twenty Years Ago in Squash Magazine
Ivy Pochoda, in a feature written and photographed by Beth Rasin, graced the cover for capturing the national intercollegiate individual title her senior year. After graduating from Harvard in 1998, Pochoda turned pro and moved to London and then Amsterdam. Reaching world No. 38, she played for Team USA in three world team championships and three times made the semis of the National Singles. While on tour, she wrote the first draft of her first novel, The Art of Disappearing, which came out in 2009. She got her MFA in fiction from Bennington College and moved to Los Angeles with her husband, Justin Nowell, a filmmaker and screenwriter. Her second novel, Visitation Street, was published in 2013 and her third novel, Wonder Valley, came out last year to rave reviews. Now forty-one, Pochoda, Nowell and their three-year-old daughter Loretta live in Los Angeles.
Fifteen Years Ago in Squash Magazine
After never making it out of the second round before, Thierry Lincou made the cover, in a marvelous Steve Line photograph, for reaching the final of the 2003 Tournament of Champions. The Frenchman never did win a ToC in six more attempts, losing in the final again two years later, but he totted up a world No. 1 ranking, twenty-three PSA tour titles (including the 2004 World Championship) and eleven French national titles. After retiring in 2012, he moved to Boston to work privately with a family. In 2014 he became the head men’s coach at MIT. Now forty-two, Lincou also teaches squash for PE at MIT, runs a junior program, leads summer camps and trains a number of top players like Amanda Sobhy, Vikram Malhotra, Gregoire Marche, and Mohamed El Sherbini.. Since last August, Lincou has served as a Team USA national coach. He and his wife Celine have three children—Jade, Paola and Gabriel.
Ten Years Ago in Squash Magazine
Dale Walker captured the excitement of the fifth annual High School Team Championships with a photo of Natasha Kingshott of Greenwich Academy (GA) slicing a backhand in front of Episcopal Academy’s Libby Eyre in the finals. Kingshott won the match in three, as GA took the title. Kingshott and Eyre faced each other the following year at High Schools and Eyre reversed the result, though GA again won overall. They were both teammates on Team USA’s squad at the 2009 World Juniors. Kingshott played at Harvard, where she was a part of three national championship teams and captain her senior year before graduating in 2013. She worked in investment banking before starting this fall at Harvard Business School. (Her younger brother Thomas is the captain of the current Yale team.) Eyre graduated from Princeton in 2014 after earning three straight first team All American honors. After a stint in New York, she now lives in San Francisco working at Oath (formerly AOL) and playing at the Olympic Club.
Five Years Ago in Squash Magazine
Chris Gordon made the cover for capturing his first men’s open title at the 2013 National Singles. Gordon was the first American male pro to forgo college and after an unprecedented eight-year run by Julian Illingworth, he finally broke through for his sole SL Green title so far. Since then, Gordon has won two more PSA titles and reached his highest ranking of world No. 44. In 2015 Gordon stood on the podium twice at the Pan American Games, capturing two bronze medals for Team USA. Last year he played in his record-tying sixth World Team Championships, helping Team USA finish tenth. He lives in Jackson Heights, Queens and plays ice hockey when not training for squash. A lifelong New York Rangers fan, Gordon, now thirty-one, still hopes for a replay of 1994.
