‘Squash gave me the tools to pick and choose my way to exist in the world at large’ says StreetSquash graduate Rakey
By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor

The growth of America’s urban squash network, and its ability to generate phenomenal fund-raising opportunities, was celebrated in majestic style when 1,200 guests gathered in the Grand Ballroom of New York City’s Midtown Hilton to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the SEA (Squash and Education Alliance) network.

More than 500 out-of-towners attended from across the country, as well as Canada, Mexico, Colombia, England, Ireland, Israel, India, Egypt and Hong Kong. It was an inspiring evening and the largest event in the history of the SEA partnership. The Jubilee raised a record-breaking $3.2 million.

Hall of Famer John Nimick, fresh from promoting another successful edition of the Tournament of Champions at nearby Grand Central Terminal, commanded the stage as MC. SEA’s Board Chair Amrit Kanwal thanked everyone for making the evening possible, and Executive Director Tim Wyant reflected on the network’s impact over the last 25 years.

The evening culminated in a show-stopping speech by StreetSquash graduate Rakey Drammeh. After moving to the U.S. from Gambia at the age of two, Rakey joined StreetSquash in Harlem when she was 11.

She went on to graduate from Bates College, where she captained the varsity squash team. Rakey now works as a software developer on the trading floor at Citibank and serves as a member of StreetSquash’s Board of Directors.

“Life can be a smooth enough ride just by knowing the right people,” said Rakey. “SEA introduced me to a world that I never imagined knowing or being part of. But more than that, it gave me the tools to pick and choose my way to exist in that world at large. StreetSquash taught me how to make choices and how to become myself as an individual in an ever complicated global environment. It taught me confidence and self advocacy. And that’s why I’m standing here today.”

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The Jubilee was made possible by the generosity and leadership of the event’s Co-Chairs and leading supporters – Andrea and Russ Ball, Barbara and Tim Boroughs, Simone and Tench Coxe, Sue and Steve Mandel, Polly and Terry O’Toole, Julian Robertson, and Sarah and Spencer Robertson – and the more than 100 others who served on the event Committee. SEA is grateful that representatives from all 25 of its member organizations participated in the celebration.

Proceeds from the Jubilee will enable SEA to provide more educational and squash opportunities to our students and alumni, promote excellence and best practices among our member organizations, and incubate new programs in cities across the country and abroad.

“The Jubilee was a beautiful celebration of the important work that SEA’s member programs have been doing in communities across the country and abroad for the past quarter century,” said SEA’s Tim Wyant. “We are deeply grateful to the many thousands of people who have made all of this possible. It was inspiring to see so many come together this past weekend to mark this important milestone. The best is yet to come.”

Dartmouth sparks Saturday night fever to win Alumni Fundraising Competition

At the start of Saturday’s dinner, organisers were $200,000 shy of their $3 million fundraising goal, with $2.8 million raised. With the help of an anonymous $100,000 matching gift and hundreds of pledges made by text at the end of the dinner, they  crossed the finish line and exceeded their goal.

A big thank you to the dozens of alumni groups from high schools and colleges across the country who rallied together to support the Jubilee. Harvard began Saturday night in the lead, with nearly 120 alumni in attendance and over $500,000 raised. After a generous and spirited fundraising effort at the end of the dinner, Dartmouth reclaimed the top spot.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the evening’s success!

Dartmouth – $555,800
Harvard – $536,880
Princeton – $205,830
Vassar – $129,200
UNC – $127,350
Duke – $126,200
Penn – $78,400
Williams – $66,150
Amherst – $55,725
Yale – $49,449
Cornell – $45,375
Trinity – $30,999
UVA – $25,200
Taft – $20,500
St. Paul’s – $18,750
Denison – $15,350

Pictures courtesy of SEA. Full gallery here

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With six hours remaining in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R sits firmly in command at the head of the overall order.

Ryan Briscoe led the way as the clock ticked past the 18-hour mark on Sunday morning, despite an unscheduled pit stop just four laps into his stint that dropped his leading margin from more than a minute over the JDC-Miller Motorsports No. 5 down to just 17 seconds.

Briscoe took over the reins of the No. 10 from Renger van der Zande at the WTR team’s most recent driver change, while Loic Duval sat second as the only other lead-lap car.

The Mazda pair of Tristan Nunez and Ryan Hunter-Reay sits third and fourth, respectively, at the three-quarter distance mark. The No. 77 is one lap down, with the No. 55 two laps in arrears.

Henrik Hedman leads the LMP2 class for Dragonspeed in the No. 81 ORECA 07 after PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports had to bring the No. 52 down for lengthy pit service at the end of the 18th hour.

That put Ben Keating three laps down to the class-leading entry of Hedman, with Kyle Tilley on the provisional podium for Era Motorsport in the No. 18.

GT Le Mans continued to be led by the pair of Porsche Motorsport 911 RSRs, with the No. 912 entry piloted by Earl Bamber heading the No. 911 steered by Nick Tandy by 13.945 seconds.

Third was the No. 3 Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor, while the No. 24 BMW M8 GTE of Augusto Farfus also remained on the lead lap with six hours remaining.

Madison Snow headed the GT Daytona class in the No. 48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3, with Mirko Bortolotti eight seconds behind in the No. 88 WRT Speedstar Audi R8 LMS GT3  Evo.

Andy Lally was third in the GRT Magnus Lamborghini.

The race set a record just before the 18th hour for the longest green-flag stint in Rolex 24 history, having resumed at lap 356 and remaining under full-speed conditions from that point.

With six hours to run, leader Briscoe had completed 630 laps of the 3.564-mile Daytona Int’l Speedway road course, for a race distance of 2,245.32 miles through 18 hours.

WARRNAMBOOL, Australia – Not even an engine that was down on power could keep James McFadden from scoring a popular win in Sunday’s 48th annual Southwest Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprint Car Classic.

Despite the fact that he “dropped a cylinder at lap one or two,” McFadden nursed his Monte Motorsport No. W17 to a 1.553-second victory over Jamie Veal, leading all but five circuits in the 40-lap finale.

McFadden’s win came with a dash of controversy, however, as he tagged the No. V25 of Jack Lee when trying to slide defending Classic champion Robbie Farr for the race lead in turn two on lap six.

The contact shot the lap car of Lee up into Farr, who ramped over Lee’s left-rear tire and bicycled hard into the outside wall at the exit of the second corner, causing terminal damage to the No. NQ7.

For Farr, who led the first five rounds on Sunday, it was game over at that point.

“Without seeing the replay, I don’t know if James got (Lee’s) front end or Jack just … saw James and tried to get out of his way, and I was already on the outside of him,” Farr noted. “I was up there (in the air) for a bit, and I knew the fence was going to be coming sooner or later.

“I think Jack was just trying to give the leader some space, and we were racing for the lead.”

Undeterred, McFadden soldiered on and held an all-star cast at bay for the remaining distance, despite four cautions in the remaining 35 laps that kept his pursuers close at hand.

The most notable of those came with five to go, when contact between Marcus Dumesny and Brenten Farrer sent Farrer’s mount flipping wildly down the backstretch before it was struck by the oncoming car of Tim Kaeding.

Kaeding quickly climbed from his car and sprinted down to check on Farrer, who emerged uninjured after a check over by safety workers at the scene.

That set up a sprint to the finish, with McFadden leading Cory Eliason, Veal and Kerry Madsen, but the yellow returned for the fifth and final time a lap later when Scott Bogucki spun in turn four from fifth.

After that, no one could touch McFadden over the final four rounds, as the Monte Motorsport pilot raced unchallenged to victory lane for the second time in Australia’s biggest sprint car event.

“First, I’m sorry to the crowd. I wanted to do donuts … but I was just trying to nurse it home,” McFadden said in victory lane. “It was a bummer I couldn’t do them; I wanted to mess up the infield logo.

“That was a hard race. I was trying to run the middle and got a little hung up in traffic, and then I was watching the big screen and saw Cory (Eliason) coming on the top,” he added. “I knew at the end that (upstairs) was where Cory was going to be and just had to keep pounding the cushion. This race is getting bigger and bigger each year and it’s an honor to win it again.”

Veal hung on to finish second, with Kerry Madsen completing an all-Australian podium.

Cory Eliason was the highest-placing American in fourth, followed by Dumesny, Tim Shaffer, Buddy Kofoid, Luke Dillon, Brooke Tatnell and Steven Lines.

A horrific weekend for Dyson Motorsport concluded Sunday with Carson Macedo flipping on the opening lap of the feature, finishing last in the 24-car field, while NASCAR star Kyle Larson turned the team’s second entry over in heat-race action and retired prior to the alphabet soup that followed.

The finish:

James McFadden, Jamie Veal, Kerry Madsen, Cory Eliason, Marcus Dumesny, Tim Shaffer, Buddy Kofoid, Luke Dillon, Brooke Tatnell, Steven Lines, Peter Doukas, Brock Hallett, Shane Stewart, Mitchell Gee, Jack Lee, Ryan Jones, Scott Bogucki, David Murcott, Tim Kaeding, Brenten Farrer, Sam Walsh, Grant Anderson, Robbie Farr, Carson Macedo.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Closing in on the finish of the 58th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, a pair of Cadillacs headed the field with four hours remaining late Sunday morning.

Leading the charge was Joao Barbosa in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R for JDC-Miller Motorsports, in part due to a penalty that dropped Wayne Taylor Racing from command.

During the fourth full-course yellow of the 24-hour grind, which waved at lap 637 and ended the longest green-flag sting in Rolex 24 history, Briscoe blew the red lights at the end of the pit lane in his run back out on to the race track.

That led to a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty for the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R which dropped Briscoe from leading the overall race to fourth and a lap down, behind Barbosa and the pair of Mazdas piloted by Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis.

But Briscoe rallied back, running his way back to the lead lap thanks to a timely caution and placing himself second at the 20-hour benchmark, just 3.261 seconds adrift of the lead.

Tincknell and the No. 55 Mazda completed the top three overall and was the final car on the lead lap with four hours of track time remaining in the twice-around-the-clock classic.

Harrison Newey and Dragonspeed retained a 14.7-second lead over Simon Trummer and PR1/Mathiasen in the LMP2 class through 20 hours, sitting eighth and ninth overall.

An intense battle in GT Le Mans saw Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 912 Porsche North America entry holding a narrow lead over Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s No. 24 BMW M8 GTE of John Edwards with 20 hours down, with five cars covered by less than five seconds in class.

Nicky Catsburg ran fourth, 1.274 seconds back of the lead pair, for Corvette Racing at that stage, making for three different manufacturers in the top four with four hours to go.

And in GT Daytona, the No. 48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 from Paul Miller Racing continued to dominate the proceedings, with Corey Lewis behind the wheel at the end of the 20th hour.

CONCORD, N.C. — Venturini Motorsports is suing two former employees, including 10-time ARCA Menards Series champion Frank Kimmel, for allegedly stealing team secrets.

The lawsuit, filed in North Carolina Business Court on Jan. 22, alleges Kimmel and another former employee, Griffin Rider, “engaged in a scheme designed to steal VMS’ most sensitive intellectual property.”

“Just before terminating their employment with VMS, both Defendants engaged in a scheme designed to steal VMS’ most sensitive intellectual property, and they did so for the purpose of taking that information for their own use and benefit, and likely, for the use of their new employer, Perfect Circle Racing, Inc. d/b/a KBR Development (“KBR”),” the complaint alleges. “This is an action to secure immediate injunctive relief to prevent continued irreparable harm to VMS’ business, and to recover substantial monetary damages as a result of Defendants’ brazen theft of Plaintiffs intellectual property.”

According to the complaint, Kimmel is accused of taking photos and videos of the underbody of Venturini Motorsports race cars while members of the Venturini Motorsports senior management weren’t present at the team’s shop in Concord, N.C.

“On Dec. 16, 2019, while VMS’ senior management was away from the facility, VMS’ security camera captured Kimmel removing a mobile telephone from his pocket, whereupon numerous flashes of light reveal that Kimmel then took photographs and/or video of the underbody VMS’ cars in the setup room,” the complaint stated.

On Dec. 18, Kimmel resigned his position with the team and on Dec. 21 it was announced he had joined KBR Development, a competitor to Venturini Motorsports in the ARCA Menards Series. Kimmel had worked as a crew chief at Venturini Motorsports since 2018.

Also on Dec. 16, Rider is accused of removing a computer from the setup area in the Venturini Motorsports shop and taking it outside to a team trailer.

“On Dec. 16, 2019, while VMS’ senior management was away from the facility, VMS’ security cameras captured Rider removing VMS’ crew chief computer, otherwise referred to as the “Pull Down Computer,” from the setup area of VMS’ race shop in which it is housed,” the complaint stated. “The recording depicts Rider carrying the computer out to the parking lot and into an unlocked VMS trailer, whereupon Rider spent approximately eleven (11) minutes with the computer. The recordings then depict Rider carrying the computer (initially concealed in a seat cover) back into the setup area, and returning it to its original position.”

According to the complaint, a forensic analysis of the computer showed that an external USB drive that had not been previously used on the computer was installed and specific setup files were downloaded during the time Rider had the computer in his possession.

Like Kimmel, Rider resigned his position with the team on Dec. 18.

On Friday a judge issued an order requiring Kimmel to return any videos or photos of Venturini Motorsports cars to the Venturini team by Monday. He has also been ordered to provide his phone for forensic analysis.

Venturini Motorsports is asking the court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, in addition to damages in excess of $25,000.

Click here to read the full lawsuit.

The ARCA Menards Series season opens on Feb. 8 at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Sebastian Soderberg broke the European Tour record books with his speedy finish to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Soderberg was first off during the final round, and because an odd number of players made the cut he played by himself. The Swede closed with a 3-over 75 but he did so in just 1 hour and 36 minutes, breaking Thomas Pieters' mark of 1 hour and 59 minutes for the fastest European Tour round on record.

"I always kind of wanted to jog and play as fast as I could," Soderberg said. "I struggled the last two days so I figured it wouldn't necessarily hurt my game to just jog in between (shots) and not think too much."

Ranked No. 137 in the world, Soderberg earned his first European Tour win last year when he edged Rory McIlroy at the Omega European Masters. He made four bogeys and a birdie Sunday to finish the week at 10 over, moving up one spot with his record-breaking finale.

Soderberg may have even been able to shave a minute or two off his total had he been a little more accurate off the tee. Instead, his blistering pace came despite the fact that he missed every single fairway during the final round.

"I think 3 over was quite well with zero fairways hit," Soderberg said.

But Soderberg's round still fell short of being the fastest on any circuit. While the PGA Tour does not keep official records for fastest rounds, Wesley Bryan unofficially took just 89 minutes to play the final round of the 2017 BMW Championship at Conway Farms.

Lucas Herbert broke through for his first career victory as a pro in a dramatic playoff over Christiaan Bezuidenhout at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Herbert, 24, birdied the second extra hole to clinch the title, minutes after he hit what he described as "maybe the worst shot I've ever hit in my life" on the first playoff hole. That approach found the water, but Herbert stuffed a wedge from the drop zone to save par and then reached the par-5 green in two after he and Bezuidenhout returned to the tee.

"If you go back and watch any sort of winner's final nine holes, or final round or playoff holes, it's never like a perfect scenario," Herbert said. "Everyone will probably forget about that now that I've gotten it up and down and then won the tournament."

Herbert's victory comes one year after the Aussie was embroiled in a rules controversy at this same event for removing loose impediments with his club in a waste bunker. He finished T-7 that week and hadn't recorded a better worldwide finish since.

Bezuidenhout held sole possession of the lead as he played the final hole of regulation. But the South African believed he needed one more birdie, and his short wedge approach spun back off the green into the water. The subsequent bogey dropped him to 9 under and into a playoff with Herbert.

Herbert and Bezuidenhout both closed with rounds of 68, and both were beneficiaries of some struggles from the tournament leaders. Overnight leader Ashun Wu stumbled to a 5-over 77 and finished in sixth, while Victor Perez dropped from second place to 16th after a 79.

The highest-profile fade came from defending champ Bryson DeChambeau, who started the day two shots off the lead but had moved into a tie for first after playing his first 14 holes in even par. But that was where his title defense derailed, as he finished with four straight bogeys to drop into a tie for eighth place at 5 under after a closing 76.

Second-placed Inter Milan were held to a third successive 1-1 draw after Radja Nainggolan, a player they loaned to Cagliari for this season, scored a second-half equaliser for the Sardinian side in their Serie A match on Sunday.

The fiercely competitive Belgian, who was told by Inter coach Antonio Conte that there was no place for him this season, stunned the San Siro with a 78th-minute goal to cancel out Lautaro Martinez's first-half opener for Inter.

Martinez was sent off in stoppage time for his furious reaction after being given a yellow card for a foul and had to be ushered away by team mates as he continued to remonstrate with the referee.

Inter have 48 points from 21 games, three behind Juventus who were away to Napoli later on Sunday, and three more than third-placed Lazio who meet AS Roma.

Inter, with a midfield depleted by injuries and suspensions, gave Ashley Young his debut and the former Manchester United player set up their goal in the 29th minute with a cross which Martinez met with a powerful header.

Cagliari protested that Martinez had pushed a defender and VAR officials finally confirmed the goal after a two-minute delay.

Alessio Cragno saved another Martinez effort with his feet but Inter did not have it all their own way and goalkeeper Samir Handanovic had to palm away a looping header from Paolo Farago before halftime.

Stefano Sensi was twice close for Inter in the second half but they failed to add a second goal and paid the price.

Joao Pedro pulled back the ball from near the corner and it ran on to Nainggolan whose low drive from 25 metres took a deflection and went in off the foot of the post.

Romelu Lukaku was centimetres away from putting Inter back in front but their frustration boiled over in stoppage time with Martinez's red card.

PSV Eindhoven forward Steven Bergwijn is set to sign for Tottenham, sources have told ESPN.

Jose Mourinho has been in the market for reinforcements in the January transfer window with Harry Kane ruled out for the forseeable future.

Kane has a hamstring injury and may not be fit until April, leading Mourinho to enter the market to secure a signing in his ongoing absence.

While reports linked Tottenham with Real Sociedad's Willian Jose, sources have told ESPN that the club expect to announce the signing of PSV's Bergwijn instead.

The 22-year-old Netherlands international, capped seven times, has been at PSV since 2011, when he joined their youth set-up from Ajax. He has five goals in 16 league appearances this season.

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Sources have told ESPN he did not make himself available for PSV's match with Twente on Sunday and instead travelled to England to finalise a deal. He will move to north London to become Mourinho's second move of the transfer window following Gedson Fernandes' arrival this month.