Joey Payeur
Anika Alexander came upon not just one but a series of crossroads in her life all at the same time.
She decided it was time to detour from the familiar and rediscover what she really wanted out of life when it came to both her sporting endeavours and career path.
Now the Fort Frances native, who currently lives in Winnipeg, has clarity in both areas and is ready to prove herself all over again as both a present-day high-level squash player and a future medical professional.
“I didn’t play in too many tournaments [in the past year-and-a-half] because I felt I wasn’t really going anywhere,” the 19-year-old admitted while enjoying a holiday homecoming at the Sunset Country Squash Club’s annual Boxing Day tournament.
“I was a little discouraged to work so hard in the sport and not seemingly going anywhere with it.
“I was also trying to figure out what I was doing with school,” she added.
“Pretty much, I was having to be an adult.”
Alexander started at the Université de Saint-Boniface in the fall of 2014 but soon found she was spinning her wheels.
Coupled with the sense that her squash career also was stuck in neutral, Alexander decided to shelve both school and sports for the most part to give herself a chance to experience personal rejuvenation.
“I found I missed the travelling and the competing,” she said about rediscovering her squash passion this past summer.
“I had really lost a lot of my muscle but I still had my muscle memory,” she added.
“I decided this is still what I wanted to do.”
But Alexander also came to realize that focusing all her energy to her time on the court wasn’t the best thing for her physical well-being.
“I used to get a lot of injuries and I realized that I didn’t have enough muscle to support my body for playing squash,” she explained.
“So I have done a lot more training outside of the court and I haven’t really been injured in the past couple of years.
“It’s amazing how you improve when you keep up with that.”
Alexander’s former coach in Winnipeg invited her to attend his junior club practices both as an experienced mentor and to also help her get back to a consistent training routine.
When it came time for Squash Manitoba to decide upon its third and final representative for the 2017 Canadian Women’s Team Championship set for this weekend in Gatineau, Que., Alexander had her chance to prove herself as a viable contender.
“The first two spots were already clinched, so it was down to a tryout match between myself and another girl and I won,” she noted.
Alexander has played in a number of tournaments in Winnipeg this fall as part of her comeback.
She hasn’t had what she calls any “outstanding” results—but there’s a legitimate reason for that.
“I have to compete in the top men’s divisions at these tournaments because I’ve won the men’s second divisions before,” Alexander explained.
“But I still believe you always win even when you lose, and you’re always gaining experience,” she reasoned.
“Guys recover quicker and get to the spot quicker, and that challenges me and pushes me to be better.”
Like at those other tournaments, Alexander was the lone female in the 18-player field here on Boxing Day.
She defeated Ross Kircher and Jeff Gustafson to earn a spot in the ‘A’ Open semi-finals before running into defending champ and former fellow Sunset Country junior Steve Boileau.
Boileau’s 3-0 win in the best-of-five match came amid what arguably was the best collection of shot-making seen all day.
The pivotal point came when Alexander was one point away from taking the second game before Boileau’s pinpoint deliveries forced her into a series of mistakes that led to him grabbing a 12-10 win and eventually sweeping the match.
“It was my first serious matchup with [Boileau] and I know what I did wrong,” she noted.
“I was definitely nervous for some reason,” she added. “I thought maybe I would get a couple of games off him.
“If I would have pulled out that second game, I would have been more focused,” Alexander said. “But when I start losing, I get frustrated and get a little bit wild out there.
“When I’m playing guys, I tend to try and hit at the same pace they do. That doesn’t last,” she laughed.
“It takes a lot out of me.”
After this weekend, Alexander will set her sights on the 2017 Canadian University & College Championships from March 3-5 in Waterloo—the first day of which will be her 20th birthday.
“Squash Manitoba funds one man and one woman to go, and I was lucky enough that they asked me to go,” she enthused.
“I’d really like to win this one and I feel I have a good chance,” she remarked.
“I’ve been training really hard this year, so that’s my goal, and I’ll be playing women for once, which is good because women don’t go at the same pace or have the same speed to their game like the guys.”
Although she’s now recommitted to staying with the game, Alexander’s nursing ambitions reflect how cognizant she is that a life of playing squash professionally doesn’t carry the same financial possibilities as other major international sports.
“The reason for that is the low profile of the sport, which is a little bit frustrating,” she said.
“If you’re going to do it at the world level, the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world are really the only ones who get a whole lot of money,” she noted.
“It’s fun but it doesn’t get any support.
“No one is voting to get it into the Olympics, which is crazy when you consider they have almost every other racquet sport like tennis, badminton, and even ping-pong,” she added.