Dan Falloon
Anniss Seid has a surprise packed up and ready to go.
The local junior squash player will compete in the Ontario Winter Games beginning tomorrow in Sudbury, and he feels he’s better equipped to give his competitors a challenge this time around.
“I think I’ll do all right,” he remarked. “I’ll have just about as many wins as losses, and the people I’ve played before, I’ll give them a harder time.
“I’ve improved a lot,” Seid added. “Usually they just toy with me, but I think they’re going to be surprised.”
Coach Bob Tkachuk also figured Seid has a legitimate shot to make some noise in his age division.
“He’s doing some damage in the men’s under-17, and hopefully he will upset some players over there [Sudbury] that he’s played in previous tournaments,” Tkachuk said.
Seid finished with two wins in five matches in 2008 in Collingwood when he played in the under-15 division.
Although he has moved up to the under-17 division this time around, Seid noted he’s seen many of his competitors before—at previous Winter Games, at nationals, and at tournaments in southern Ontario.
But he reckoned he has improved in several areas since them so those previous matches could be moot for his opponents’ expectations.
“I think I’m a more powerful player,” he remarked. “My technique is a lot better, and I’m really watching the ball.”
Seid has been playing squash since he was 10 years old, but thinks he only recently had taken his game to another level, recalling that he was awestruck by some of his opponents just two years ago.
“Two years ago, I went to Winnipeg and saw some players and just said, ‘Holy, these guys are good,’ and now I’m beating them,” he noted.
“When I first saw them, I just went, ‘Wow, I’ll never beat these guys.’”
Seid theorized that perhaps all of his hard work is starting to pay off; that those players have hit a plateau while his game is still on the rise.
“Maybe I’ve just put in more time than they have,” he reasoned.
“I’m just a more powerful player. My hit is very, very hard,” he added.
But mental toughness has played just as significant a role for Seid, who conceded his on-court maturity has helped him eke out many a close match.
“They get frustrated, and I have good concentration,” he explained. “They get angry and they lose their concentration.
“It’s always very close, but I always seem to get out and win it.”
Ideally, Seid would like to avoid getting into those situations, as his opponents tend to start stronger than he does.
“I make a bad habit of losing the first two games [of a best-of-five match] and then coming back,” he noted. “I always dig myself a hole and then I always have to get back out of it.”
But Seid said his ability to get out of a jam is something that’s bloomed recently given his practice sessions weren’t as efficient as they are now.
“When I first started out, my concentration wasn’t as good,” he recalled. “[Coach] Bob Tkachuk was always telling me that I was swinging my racquet when he was talking, or playing with the ball or something.
“I’d always be looking around the court, looking through the glass.
“I think he thought I had ADD or something, but now I just concentrate on the game.”
Another way that has helped Seid make strides is by competing against older players. In the annual men’s Boxing Day tournament here, for instance, Seid advanced to the ‘A’ final before bowing out 3-0 to Jason Kabel.
“It’s fun,” he enthused. “There are guys who see me and think, ‘Oh, he’s never going to do anything,’ and then I end up beating them.”
Playing against older players is a different thrill for Seid since these competitors also have the mental toughness he possesses, meaning an entertaining match often is in the cards.
“They have a lot of experience, so they know what to do at times, and they don’t get as frustrated as playing younger kids,” he remarked. “They don’t run as much as younger kids, so you always have to switch it up with your opponents.
“Some of them figure you out a lot quicker than a younger player would, and they have different techniques,” Seid added. “I know a guy that I should be beating, and he always beats me in five by a point or two.
“He figures out what’s wrong with my game and uses it to his advantage while a younger player would probably just say, ‘Oh, I’ve got to hit it harder,’ which isn’t always the case.”
Seid is one of five Sunset Country reps on the Northwest regional squash team, joining Shawn Brady (under-13) on the boys’ side.
On the girls’ side, Angel McCormack, Anika Alexander, and Kaitlyn DeGagne are representing the under-13, under-15, and under-17 divisions, respectively.
McCormack is looking to boost her ranking at the Winter Games—and Tkachuk has a hunch she just might pull it off.
“Angel very likely will improve her ranking from fourth, maybe to third, with a couple big wins that she’s capable of,” he noted.
McCormack has attended the national tournament before, and she was able to garner some needed experience at Niagara-on-the-Lake last April.
“There were lots of good competitors,” she noted. “I learned how to hide stuff, made it harder for my opponents to see what I was doing.”
McCormack felt her best recent match came against fellow junior DeGagne, where she put her skills into action even though DeGagne wound up the victor.
“Even though I didn’t win it, when I played Katie [DeGagne], that was a really good game,” she recalled. “The rallying, all the shots, stuff like that.”
Tkachuk admitted DeGagne and Brady will be in tough in Sudbury as they’ll be making their first appearances at a competition of the Winter Games’ level.
He also felt Alexander has a tough road ahead of her as she is on the younger end of the division and so will be matched up against older, more experienced players.
But Tkachuk added playing in high-level competition makes the players realize what the upper echelon of the sport is, and makes them question if they have the commitment to get to that level.
“They ask, ‘Do I want to keep pushing or not?’ That’s what the Winter Games does,” Tkachuk said.
“It crafts greatness with the very strong play.”
