Building a strong squash community takes passion and teamwork, and the work is shared: club managers, players, sports-council officials, and school coaches all have a part. What follows is a set of real examples from around the world, at the grassroots, in clubs, at events, with juniors, and online, of people making the game easier to walk into.
Grassroots Development: Squash for Everyone
Grassroots work introduces squash to new players and breaks down its old reputation as an elite or niche sport. Flexible memberships and affordable pricing open the courts wider, and bringing the game to schools, parks, and community centres, sometimes with portable walls or modified games, reaches people where they are.
- Schools and youth centres: partner with local schools for PE or after-school squash; even mini-squash or wall rebounders spark interest among kids.
- Public courts and open access: in New York City, the non-profit Public Squash built the first free outdoor squash court at Hamilton Fish Park on Manhattan's Lower East Side, with free public clinics for newcomers.
- Community outreach: team up with YMCAs and youth clubs for beginner clinics or open-house days, with loaner equipment and friendly coaching so anyone can try squash without cost or intimidation.
World Squash Day, founded in 2001, has grown into the world's biggest grassroots squash event: clubs and federations across dozens of countries hold open days, fun tournaments, and bring-a-friend sessions to break the ice and show that squash is a welcoming, social sport.
Expanding Local Clubs and Facilities
Expanding a club is about growing membership and improving facilities, not just building courts. Make participation easy with off-peak passes, family or youth discounts, and casual drop-in rates, and build a welcoming culture with new-member nights, mentor systems pairing rookies with experienced players, and club mixers.
Partnering with community institutions or local government can fund upgrades. In Australia, champion Michelle Martin has pushed for squash courts in council-run leisure centres, noting that many of Australia's private squash centres, built decades ago, have since deteriorated. In Sydney, three long-closed courts on council land at North Manly were rebuilt with council funding, and at Willoughby the community is lobbying the council to buy an aging private centre and keep it as a racquet-sports hub.
In Newport, Rhode Island, the Newport County YMCA expanded its facility in 2022 to include seven squash courts, one of the most intentional squash investments by a YMCA, and brought in the local non-profit junior program RhodySquash with a dedicated space, keeping the courts busy from schoolkids to adults. Expanding a club is as much about people as courts: grow the people, and the courts will follow.
Organizing Events to Bring People Together
Events create interest, build friendships, and draw fresh faces. A few ideas:
- Open days and taster sessions: free walk-in sessions with spare equipment and coaches on hand, often on World Squash Day, with bring-a-friend or round-robin formats.
- Leagues and ladders: continuous box leagues or challenge ladders, or a weekly club night grouped by level with a social afterward.
- Community tournaments: junior, adult, mixed-doubles, or family events focused on enjoyment, including handicap or fun formats (one-point shootouts, wood-racquet nights) to level the field.
- Exhibitions and pro showcases: an exhibition match featuring top local players or a visiting professional, or a clinic with a pro coach, inspires players of all ages.
New York's PSA Tour Tournament of Champions plays on a glass court in Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall, showcasing squash to thousands of passersby. In Austria, 19-time national champion Aqeel Rehman founded the Austrian Squash Challenge, a festival built around a full glass court inside a Salzburg shopping centre where the professional Mozart Open takes place. Hundreds of schoolchildren get free coaching on the mall court: in 2025 alone, over 400 children got on court, many later joining the local Salzburg club. The goal was to demystify squash and bring it into the public eye, and it worked.
Youth Engagement Programs: Investing in the Future
Engaging young players builds a lasting squash community. Programs need to be accessible, enjoyable, and supportive both on and off the court.
Schools and after-school programs
Squash-in-schools initiatives bring portable equipment and coaches into school gyms. Squash BC in Canada runs a Squash in Schools program, and England Squash runs Squash Stars, a six-week program that introduces beginners through fun games and drills. Even a few weeks of exposure can lead kids to a local club or junior camp.
Urban squash: combining sport with education
A strong model, urban squash, uses the game as a hook for tutoring, mentoring, and opportunity for underserved youth. The Squash and Education Alliance (SEA) network now includes 28 member programs, 21 in the United States and 7 in other countries, working with more than 2,000 students, offering free coaching, academic support, and enrichment. In South Africa, Egoli Squash (now part of Egoli Youth Empowerment) grew from a Johannesburg grassroots effort into a holistic program with academic tutoring, leadership training, and life skills; it built and refurbished courts in underserved areas such as Soweto, partnered with primary and high schools, and introduced squash to deaf learners and girls-only groups so no one is left out.
Starting small
You do not need a big budget: run a weekly after-school junior club or a summer camp, tap volunteer high-school or college players to coach, and set up a junior league or ladder so kids meet peers from other schools. Keep it fun with games, relays, and music, and parents who see their children getting exercise and learning sportsmanship often get involved or pick up a racket themselves.
Leveraging Social Media and Online Platforms
A squash community also thrives online. Clubs use Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as a bulletin board for league nights, tournaments, and socials, and to show the human side, photos of juniors drilling or the post-tournament BBQ, which signals a fun, welcoming place. England Squash encourages clubs to use such digital storytelling as a marketing tool, since an active feed attracts prospective members browsing online. Egoli Youth Empowerment has used social media to share its kids' progress and graduate success stories, attracting media coverage, donors, and partners beyond the squash world.
Beyond social media, online booking systems and apps make scheduling easier and create a sense of a larger network, and many communities use WhatsApp or Discord groups; during the COVID-19 lockdowns some clubs held virtual training or rules quizzes over Zoom to stay connected.
Tips for boosting your community online
- Keep content regular and upbeat, a few posts a week showcasing club life or squash tips.
- Use big events or campaigns, join World Squash Day with the relevant hashtags to reach a wider audience.
- Encourage members to contribute user-generated content, such as a junior's first-tournament video or a coaches' trickshot challenge.
- Use shout-outs and thanks for volunteers, winners, and players who have improved a lot.
- Be interactive: respond to comments, join local online sports groups, and run occasional contests.
Conclusion: One Court, One Community
None of the examples here, the free park courts, the mall festivals, the school-and-squash programs, needed a big budget. They needed someone willing to organise and a door left open for newcomers. That is most of the job: make the game easy to walk into, and the community starts to build itself.
