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 Martin Bronstein talks to England Squash Area Manger Justyn
Price who has been given National Responsibility for Racketball.
Justyn Price has packed a lot of sport into his 24-year life.
Not only as an elite athlete, but also on the other side of the fence –
administration. To some people administration is dirty word, but listening
to Price talking about his life over the last ten years gives the word a new
lustre.
He started with Southampton Football Club, where he learned
the importance of marketing (a skill woefully lacking in British sport) and
working with the community. After three years he knew that he wanted to
spend his working life in sport administration and realised that in order to
achieve that goal he would have to go to university. So he left Southampton
and enrolled at Durham University, three years later graduating with an
honours degree in Sport in the Community.
There followed a spell in badminton and then, at the start of
2007, he joined England Squash as an Area Squash Manager. And what an area –
nothing less than the 33 London boroughs and the Home Counties surrounding
them. His remit was pretty extensive, too:
“My job is to encourage and enable more people to play squash
and racketball,” he says simply. But what that job entails is endless
programmes and initiatives, an enormous amount of travel around southern
England and more late nights than he cares to admit.
“Last week, I had a meeting on Monday night, a conference on
Tuesday night and another meeting on Wednesday night. On Thursday I managed
to get home [a house he shares in Winchester with his fiancée, Felicity, a
trainee solicitor] by seven,” he recounts, candidly admitting that the
constant driving is not one of his pleafont size="2" face="Verdana" color="#000080">As if the meetings and the programmes are not enough to fill
his week, Price has to write and produce a weekly newsletter, which,
according to his brief, “will include England Squash news, tournament entry
forms, club news … advise about local authority funding oppor-tunities and
training courses …”). Price will also help organisers with graded events as
well as exhibition matches and local roadshows. And somehow he finds time
one evening a week to coach juniors, inventing all sorts of games (points
earned on length and targets, for example) to keep the kids involved and
enthusiastic.
Price travels around with a huge sports bag full of squash
and racketball rackets, balls, and other training equipment in his left
hand; in the right, he carries a bulging laptop case containing –in addition
to his laptop – all his paperwork relating to ongoing projects. Whatever
information you want, whatever query comes up, Price has it on his laptop,
which goes wherever he goes.
And what of racketball? I lived in North America when
racketball made its appearance (played on special court with no tin) and saw
it rocket to huge popularity (it was played on a Perspex court before squash
was) and then just as quickly virtually die out, the courts being adapted to
squash usage. I was less than impressed when England Squash embraced
racketball. Price responded to my jaundiced view with his usual intelligent
enthusiasm.
“I’ve worked as a personal trainer and a speed, agility and
quickness trainer and in many other areas of sport; There are many new ways
in which to package a sport. The average person has a stereotyped view of
squash, but if you mention racketball people say, “They play that in
America, don’t they?” There’s no pre-conceived image. So we have a sport
that we can market and frame as whatever we want. It could be the ideal
alternative to aerobics, a daytime activity when squash courts aren’t being
used. It could be the winter game instead of squash when the cold yellow-dot
ball isn’t bouncing. It could be the ideal sport for companies wanting to
arrange lunchtime social sessions. Racketball is a great leveller: you can
put a good squash player on court with someone willing to run and they would
have a great time,” he says, adding, “Squash and racketball appeal to
different people. There’s always daytime availability of courts, so why not
use that time to make money and bring in a whole new group of people?”
Justyn Price came into squash less than a year ago and has
embraced it fully. There is nothing false or obsequious about his
enthusiasm. He recently travelled to New York to take part in the Derek
Sword Trophy, paying his own fare to play for the London team again the New
York team.
Journalist Alan Thatcher, who was the driving force behind
that tournament (Sword was a Scot who lost his life in the 9/11 disaster)
and is chairman of the Kent SRA, which falls within Price’s area, dropped
his journalistic cynicism when asked about Price.
“He’s a breath of fresh air, full of commitment, ideas and
passion. With his help we’ve put in a massive Mini Squash programme
involving hundreds
of schools. And it’s working,” Thatcher enthuses.
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‘It is obvious
that the challenge of getting people to participate in sport is one that he
feels is worthwhile’
Price carries a sports
bag in one hand and a laptop in the other
Justyn Price in
discussion with David Peck of Colets in Thames Ditton, England's Men’s Club
Champions |
