The are many parallels between squash and fencing at the college level. Neither sport is widely played in colleges at the competitive level, there are only 44 colleges with NCAA fencing teams and 34 colleges with varsity squash teams. And both sports are heavily concentrated in the highly selective colleges.

Common Characteristics between Squash and Fencing

While they are very different sports, squash and fencing share several common characteristics:

• Neither sport requires you to have specific physical attributes, like being tall, or strong or weigh more than 150 pounds. Whether you are 5 foot 2 or 6 foot 2, you can be a great squash player or a great fencer.

• Both sports have an intellectual component to them. Fencing has been likened to physical chess. Squash requires an understanding of angles and rebounds and quick mental calculations to get your racket positioned to score.

• Both fencing and squash offer pathways to athlete recruitment at the Ivy League and elite colleges.

• 15 top colleges (including 5 Ivy League colleges) offer men’s fencing, and 21 top colleges (including 7 Ivy League colleges) offer women’s fencing.

• 20 top colleges (including 7 Ivy League colleges) offer men’s squash, and 22 top colleges (including 7 Ivy League colleges) offer women’s squash.

• The number of nationally competitive players at the junior levels are limited in both squash and fencing, increasing athlete recruitment opportunities for high school athletes with access to good coaching, practice and high quality tournament experience.

• Both squash and fencing are expensive to pursue at the competitive levels. Travel is a necessity to gain tournament experience and to compete in high level competitions to earn points and climb the national rankings.

• Both sports are open to players as young as 8.

See: What is Squash for the Junior Player?

How Many Squash Players and Fencers at the Top Colleges?

There are about 17% more fencers than squash players at the top colleges, 721 fencers compared to 597 squash players.

The average team size for men’s fencing is 21 members inclusive of epee, foil and sabre fencers, and the average team size for women’s fencing is 19 members collectively for the 3 weapons.

Squash teams average 16 members for men’s teams, and 14 members for women’s teams.

However, despite the larger number of fencers, fencing may not necessarily offer greater athlete recruitment opportunities than squash.

Athlete recruitment for fencers is conducted by weapon. Nationally competitive junior fencers specialize in one weapon only with no crossover with the other 2 weapons. It is very, very rare for a fencer with athlete recruitment potential to fence more than one weapon, even though it is quite common amongst recreational fencers to fence more than one weapon. This means that in reality, a high school fencer’s athlete recruitment opportunities are limited to the weapon he/she specializes in. This effectively divides the recruitment opportunity into thirds for each gender.

In contrast, colleges recruit squash players for the team generally.

Let’s look more closely at what the numbers actually tell us.

Table of Highly Selective Colleges with NCAA Fencing and Varsity Squash

The table below lists the highly selective colleges that offer NCAA fencing and varsity squash with detailed breakdown of number of participants by weapon and gender for fencing, and a breakdown by gender for squash.

The data is clear that once you breakdown the fencing teams by weapon, the number of fencers per weapon at each college is small compared to the number of squash players on a team per college. The athlete recruitment opportunity for fencing has to be measured by weapon and by gender since a fencer is recruited by weapon specialization.

All data obtained from college athletic websites and are based on 2021/2022 rosters

Athlete Recruitment Opportunities in Squash

Note: While NCAA fencing requires 3 fencers per team in a competition, in collegiate squash, there are 10 players on a team in a competition. This means that squash college coaches will likely always need to recruit a greater percentage of their teams than NCAA fencing coaches to stay competitive in tournaments.

Division 1 Squash Recruiting

In Division 1 where the best athlete recruitment opportunities are, only 8 colleges offer men’s squash and 10 colleges offer women’s squash. Based on the athlete profiles at these colleges, we estimate that all or nearly all of their squash players were recruited to the team, whether through “hard” recruitment following Division 1 rules or through “soft” recruitment similar to Division 3 recruiting.

To estimate the maximum number of annual openings for freshman athlete recruitment in Division 1, we will make the following assumptions based on what we see in the team profiles:

• 100% of the Division 1 squash teams are athlete recruited

• the number of squash players per team are evenly distributed over 4 years of college, with an equal number of squash players from each year on the team

Using these assumptions, we estimate that there will likely be about:

• 32 positions (128 men on Division 1 teams divided by 4 years) open for men annually for athlete recruitment distributed among the 8 colleges with men’s squash in Division 1.

• 36.5 positions (146 women on Division 1 teams divided by 4 years) open for athlete recruitment amongst the 10 colleges with women’s squash in Division 1.

Division 3 Squash Recruiting

There are more top colleges in Division 3 that play squash than in Division 1. In Division 3, there are 12 colleges for men’s squash and 11 colleges for women’s squash.

However, none of the top colleges in Division 3 disclose profile details about their players history and achievements in squash in high school making it harder to estimate how many recruited athletes there are on each Division 3 team.

But we do know that in collegiate squash, there are 10 players on a team in a competition necessitating a college to field 10 good players to have a chance in a competition. This translates into the colleges needing to recruit more of their squash players even in Division 3.

If we assume that every college in Division 3 must include a minimum of 10 recruited players on the team, then in Division 3:

• men’s squash could be offering 30 athlete recruitment positions annually (derived by taking 12 colleges multiplied by 10 and then divided by 4), and

• women’s squash could be offering 27.5 athlete recruitment opportunities annually (derived by taking 11 colleges multiplied by 10 and then divided by 4).

Annually, squash could be offering as many as 62 athlete recruitment opportunities to the top colleges for men and as many as 64 athlete recruitment opportunities for women across Division 1 and Division 3.

Athlete Recruitment Opportunities in Fencing

Division 1 Recruiting for Fencing

In Division 1 where the best athlete recruitment opportunities are, based on the 2021/2022 team sizes at the 15 colleges with men’s fencing, men’s epee had 77 fencers across the 4 college years making it the largest of the men’s fencing teams, followed by sabre with 68 fencers and foil with 64 fencers.

The weapon with the largest number of women’s fencers in Division 1 across 21 colleges is foil with 105 fencers, followed by sabre and epee with 85 and 80 fencers each.

The colleges in Division 1 will have a greater percentage of fencers who are athlete recruits, possibly as high as 90% of the team.

To estimate the maximum number of athlete recruitment opportunities for Division 1 fencing, we will assume that:

• 100% of fencers on Division 1 teams are recruited.

• the team members are evenly distributed over 4 years of college, with an equal number of fencers in each of the 4 years

Based on these assumptions, here is what we estimate to be the maximum number of annual open positions for freshmen athlete recruits by weapon across all top colleges in Division 1:

Men: Estimated Annual Athlete Recruitment Positions (15 Colleges in Division 1)

Men’s Epee - 19.25

Men’s Foil - 16

Men’s Saber - 17

Women: Estimated Annual Athlete Recruitment Positions (21 Colleges in Division 1)

Women’s Epee - 20

Women’s Foil - 26.25

Women’s Sabre - 21.25

Division 3 Recruiting for Fencing

The number of athlete recruits at Division 3 colleges for fencing varies substantially by college. Some colleges have 90% of their teams filled with “walk-on” fencers while others recruit more than 80% of their team.

When they do recruit, coaches at the Division 3 colleges will support a fencer’s application for admission even if the fencer has no national points provided the fencer has earned a ratings classification and has reasonably high quality coaching and tournament experience under their belts.

You have to review the profile of fencers at the Division 3 colleges to understand if the Division 3 college recruits actively or if the college passively waits for qualified candidates to come along. Based on their fencer profiles, New York University is the most active of the Division 3 colleges in fencing athlete recruitment followed by Johns Hopkins University, Vassar College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

With only 7 highly selective colleges with fencing teams, the athlete recruitment opportunities are much smaller for fencers in Division 3. Even if we generously assume that these 7 colleges recruit 50% of their team, and the number of fencers are evenly distributed over 4 years, the number of annual positions for freshman athlete recruits will look as follows:

Men: Estimated Annual Athlete Recruitment Positions (5 Colleges in Division 3)

Men’s Epee: 5

Men’s Foil: 4.375

Men’s Saber: 4.125

Women: Estimated Annual Athlete Recruitment Positions (7 Colleges in Division 3)

Women’s Epee: 5.625

Women’s Foil: 5.875

Women’s Saber: 5.125

Annually, it looks like fencing could be offering an estimated 24.25 athlete recruitment positions in Men’s Epee, 20.375 positions in Men’s Foil, 21.125 positions in Men’s Saber, 25.625 positions in Women’s Epee, 32.125 positions in Women’s Foil and 26.375 positions in Women’s Saber across Division 1 and Division 3.

Note: You can change up the assumptions especially around Division 3 athlete recruitment. Even if we assume that colleges in Division 3 do not recruit any of their squash players, squash still offers more potential athlete recruitment opportunities for men and women compared to each of the weapons in fencing.

It Looks Like Squash Offers More Athlete Recruitment Opportunities BUT…..

There is a big catch!

Fencing clubs are the primary channel for fencers to train as competitive fencers enabling them to become attractive candidates for athlete recruitment to the top colleges. Fencing clubs are accessible to anyone who desires to learn to fence and is willing to foot the bill for training, equipment and tournament travel costs.

Despite the high costs, fencing looks amazingly egalitarian compared to squash. In fencing, there is equality of access, in squash, access is very narrow and unequal.

A small collection of highly selective, elite private high schools, mainly in Connecticut and Massachusetts serve as the largest feeders of squash athlete recruits to the top colleges. Elite foreign players form the second largest group of squash athlete recruits at the top colleges.

Based on the squash player profiles at the Division 1 colleges, our count tells us that 63% of players in women’s squash came from the elite private schools, while 31% of players were foreign. A tiny 6% of women squash players in Division 1 came from public high schools.

In Division 1 men’s squash at the top colleges, 58% of players attended one of the elite private schools, and 34% are foreign players, leaving only 8% of players coming from public high schools.

These elite private schools all have their own squash programs with fulltime squash coaches, many of whom were once top squash players who were themselves recruited to the top colleges.

The private schools that stand out as major feeders of squash athlete recruits include Greenwich Academy, Hopkins School, Brunswick School, Groton School, Hotchkiss School, Deerfield Academy, Phillips Academy, The Haverford School, Lawrenceville School, Choate Rosemary Hall, Hackley School and so on. This is a roster of some of the most expensive and hard to get into private schools in the country.

If you did not get into one of these schools, then you are out of luck trying to get athlete recruited for squash unless you are a top foreign player.

(I noted that 2 squash players from my high school alma mater in Singapore were recruited to Columbia and Yale. And I too played squash in high school which is what motivated me to compare the 2 sports since my 2 kids were high school fencers.)

Given that US Squash claims there are 1.6 million squash players in the United States (compared to fencing’s 40,000 plus fencers), it is shocking that a small group of elite private schools have such a big grip on squash athlete recruitment. An email to US Squash enquiring about the total number of competitive junior squash players in the country has not been answered.

Is there a shortage of top level squash coaches outside of the private schools? Is the such a shortage of top American junior squash players outside the private schools such that college squash coaches have to look internationally to recruit players?

If there is a shortage of talented junior squash players, there is opportunity here for both squash coaches and young squash players not at the elite private schools to ramp up their efforts and take back squash athlete recruitment opportunities from an elite few.