A few years ago, the Warrnambool Squash Club’s existence was under threat with just 12 members left and no courts to play on.
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Fast forward four years, and the lively club is boasting more than 130 members and celebrating after being named club of the year by Squash Australia last week.
The award recognised the enormous effort that members have made to ensure the club remains a key part of the community with young members taking up the sport.
Squash Australia commended the club for its growth and success recruiting new players at an annual awards dinner in Melbourne.
Club treasurer Jason Bilson said junior memberships had been growing rapidly, with the club making contact with schools to let them know about the club.
Before members made an effort to get younger players involved, it had been almost two decades since there were juniors.
He said winning was an “awesome” feeling.
“Part of the reason we got sports club of the year award is because we’ve come back from the brink of nothing,” Mr Bilson said.
“Now we’ve got about 55 juniors and 60 to 70 seniors – we thought that was a pretty good effort.
“We just didn’t want to see it fold.”
Mr Bilson said Squash Victoria nominated the club for the national award.
Club president Shaun Stapleton – whose father was a club champion – said he had been playing his whole life.
“It was daunting to see it dwindle away a little bit,” he said.
“We knew if we didn’t step up I don’t think anyone else would have.
“It’s good we had enough dedicated members to get back in front.”
Despite the celebrations from the national award, the club is still facing a degree of uncertainty, with the Timor Street building holding the squash courts up for sale.
Looking years down the track, club leaders including Mr Bilson and Mr Stapleton are keen to establish better facilities in Warrnambool with support from government and official squash bodies – perhaps by teaming up with other indoor sports groups.
“The courts are old and cold in the winter, “ Mr Bilson said.
He said getting better facilities would help the sport develop further.
In 2014, the remaining members of the club had to travel to Terang each week to play after the closure of the Action Sports Centre in January that year.
The facilities opened back up early in 2015 after striking a rental agreement with the owner of the Timor Street centre, with numbers recovering since then.