Squash Helps Students Gain Ivy League Admission

BOSTON -- It's a game to some, but for others it's a ticket into any Ivy League school.

NewsCenter 5's Bianca de la Garza reported that for some, squash is serious business.

At Cross Courts in Natick squash players are using their skills to get themselves into prestigious schools. Every Ivy League school has a squash team.

"Squash is definitely giving kids these days an upper hand. They may be great students but if they don't have anything else that differentiates them from someone else, they may not stick out," said Warren Cross of Cross Courts.

Natick High School senior Corey Schafer had excellent grades, but she said squash is the reason she got admitted to her top choice college.

"I'm going to Dartmouth," she said.Squash enthusiasts said younger kids are picking up the sport so they can get into a private high school.

"We are finding that a lot of schools that offer squash (as part of) their middle school programs become oversubscribed because there are so many girls and boys interested in the sport," Cross said.

Cross is seeing kids as young as 7 coming in to play, and U.S. Squash saw a 20 percent increase in members under 18 in the past two years.