Squash Takes Root in Houston

Walking through George Bush Airport with my Tecnifibre squash bag, I’ve learned to expect questions. My bag is long and bulky: tennis-shaped, but not quite. Inevitably, someone points and asks, “Tennis?” By now, I’m used to answering this question (“squash”) and seeing some sort of familiarity wipe across people’s faces: “Ohhh, I think I’ve seen those courts at my gym!” 

Squash is played in an indoor square-shaped court. Most commonly played with two people, the objective is to hit a small rubber ball against the wall, aiming to make it bounce twice before your opponent can reach it. To play, you need a racket, ball, goggles, squash shoes, and access to a court. Competitive matches are typically played in a best-of-five format, each game played up to 11 points. 

Even though squash is not very well-known in Houston or in this part of the country, there is a community of people who spend hours between the four walls of a squash court every day. They are strong, fast, and disciplined – qualities demanded by the sport, as Forbes deemed squash one of the healthiest sports in the world in 2003, due to the cardio endurance and strength it requires. 

That level of intensity can be intimidating, but for many Houston players, the path into squash started with something simple. Zaina Zaidi, a graduate of Episcopal High School, was encouraged to start the sport by her dad, Azam Zaidi, and was inspired to continue by watching her peers play when she was 8 years old. She started with Coach Jahanzeb Khan at LifeTime (now Coach Khan is the founder and director at Houston Squash Club). 

“I wanted to do other things like gymnastics, ice skating, and swimming. Then I saw two girls playing in a tournament, Hana [Cochinwala] and Noor [Naseem], and they were the only girls. I saw them play, and they looked like they were having so much fun. After that, I told my dad I wanted six lessons. I don't know where I got six from, but we just kind of went from there,” said Zaina. 

Those six lessons took Zaina far, as she became Pakistan’s highest ranked female squash player globally as well as having an overall global ranking of 179 as of February 2025. (Zaina has a dual citizenship with Pakistan and the US, and chose to be ranked in Pakistan.) To achieve these rankings, Zaina competed in multiple Professional Squash Association tournaments. This past summer, Zaina trained in Egypt, a global hub for elite squash players. 

Rishabh Sharma, who graduated from Episcopal in May, started playing squash around age 7, not long after his older sister, Yana, started playing. Their parents, Yasmin and Anuj Sharma, would go to the gym at The Downtown Club at The Met, which has squash courts, and Rishabh and Yana became interested in playing. “We were very competitive with each other. My whole goal in playing was to beat her. She was my biggest motivator and competitor when I was young. That competitive mindset carried over once I started getting older and started taking squash more seriously.” By the age of 9, Rishabh was competing in tournaments across the U.S., playing in over 400 official matches total during his junior squash career and rising to the top 20 national rankings in the BU15, BU17, and BU19 divisions. 

Ruby Sandoval started squash at age 10 through a program at Hogg Middle School called Mission Squash, now called Mission Success. What began as a school activity soon opened the doors to new opportunities for Ruby. She received a scholarship to St. Paul’s School, a boarding school in New Hampshire, where she played on the Girls Varsity Squash Team and graduated in May. Ruby said, “If you watch a professional squash match, and you understand what's going on, it's really interesting. That's how I fell in love. Everything's always happening and going on, and it makes you want to try and play.” 

COLLEGIATE BOUND piscopal High School graduate Zaina Zaidi, who has reached No. 1 in Pakistan and 179th globally, will continue her career on the Trinity University Women’s Varsity Squash Team.

Unlike the explosive boom in the sport of pickleball, squash in Houston has seen a steady growth over the past few decades. Just last year, Houston hosted the World Squash Junior Championships put on by the World Squash Federation (WSF), welcoming 46 teams from around the globe. 

Even with that momentum, squash within the Houston community remains relatively niche compared to cities in the Northeast, where squash is a common high school and college team sport. In the U.S., as of 2021, there are 34 men’s varsity teams, 32 women’s varsity teams, and 45 additional club teams, according to US Squash. 

Rishabh said, “When I first got into high school, people didn't really know what it was. But people saw that I was really dedicated to squash, and it started getting more exposure. People knew I played; people knew I was good. People thought it was interesting.” 

After undergoing the recruiting process, Ruby, Zaina, and Rishabh are officially taking their talents to the collegiate level at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Trinity, and MIT, respectively. Just like any other college sport, the varsity recruiting process is competitive and requires a mix of athletic skill, academic achievement, and communication with coaches. 

Rishabh went to high school focused on academics, with the mindset of being recruited to be a college squash player. He graduated valedictorian. However, unlike his East Coast peers, he said he didn’t have built-in connections, just a clear sense of determination and a strong support system including his parents and his older sister, Yana, who now plays squash at Amherst. 

Rishabh said he’s seen his sister play in college a few times and it’s made him proud. “It would just bring me back to seeing how competitive she was with me. She brought that same intensity to any opponent she had. I think it just made me her biggest supporter.” 

Yana, who graduated from Episcopal in 2023, helped Rishabh prepare for the recruitment process. Rishabh said, “She told me don't let the process define you as a player and as a person. She told me to keep being yourself and don't let what they think affect what you think about yourself. Being able to be prepared for that was important.” 

Balancing two competitive sports while preparing for college recruitment is no easy feat. For Zaina, who played both varsity field hockey at Episcopal and squash, pressure mounted quickly. She learned how to balance her time and decided to give up field hockey in her junior year. Zaina said, “I learned how to study and succeed in school while maintaining a tough training regimen. Socially, it was rough because I felt like I was missing a lot of events.” Then, a month before recruiting started, she suffered a concussion, causing her to rethink her journey. 

Ultimately, she decided to continue with the recruitment process. “The thing that always brought me back was when I played one of my first tournaments I played that was at Yale. I didn't know that there were college squash teams. I saw some girls practicing and I didn't even know that was a thing and it looked so fun to be on a team. Every time I felt like this wasn’t going to happen, I just remembered my younger self,” said Zaina. 

Ruby Sandoval, graduate of St. Paul’s School and Mission Success alum, competes for St. Paul’s in the pictured match. She will go on to play for Hobart and William Smith Colleges. (Photo: Courtesy of St. Paul's Squash)

For Ruby, her main goal was to get a scholarship and find a team she could bond with. Ruby said she had such a tight squash community in Houston and a great coach in Santiago Moran and wanted to find the same community in college. “I really liked Hobart, and I fell in love with the school,” said Ruby. “I fell in love with the team; everyone was so sweet.” 

For Rishabh, a memorable moment was meeting former World No. 1 player Ali Farag. Rishabh recalled, “He also told me he thinks of himself as a husband, a father, a Harvard graduate before he thinks of himself as a professional squash player. A lot of times, you can get so caught up in wins and losses, you forget who you are as a person. Squash isn’t the end all be all wherever you land up.” 

That perspective stuck with Rishabh during his visit to MIT. “I saw that the team was so well balanced. They're obviously very smart. They had the best academics. They were very committed to squash. But they knew that they could be so much more than just squash players. They're good people and good humans. Squash was just a way that people connected to each other,” Rishabh said. 

Looking forward, these incoming college squash players are most excited for the team aspect of collegiate squash. “Honestly, the biggest thing for me is just being in a team because coming from Houston, it's always been about playing individually, traveling for tournaments, just me and my parents. Now it's not just about how I do individually,” said Rishabh. 

He added, “I think people should take more notice about squash in Houston. Now more than ever, Houston's becoming more and more developed in the squash scene. It used to be me traveling all over the country to fly for tournaments and now people are traveling to Houston to play.” 

Prisha Shivani interned at The Buzz Magazines this summer. She plays squash for Andover, a boarding school in Massachusetts.

Squash: Where and how to play

Whether you are picking up a racket for the first time or getting back into the game, there are many go-to spots in Houston with courts available. See houston.ussquash.com/clubs to find a nearby court, such as at Houston Squash Club, LifeTime City Centre Houston, West University Recreation Center, The Downtown Club at The Met, the Downtown YMCA, Greenspoint Club, Houston Center Club, the Houstonian Club, Houston Center Club, Texas Club, and Westlake Club. Learn more about squash at ussquash.org/get-started or see www.worldsquash.sport.