KENTVILLE, N.S. — He got to share the Canada Winter Games experience with some great people and he brought home some great memories – not to mention a bronze medal.
Douglas Kosciukiewicz of Canaan said “it’s pretty cool” to bring home bronze in male individual squash from the recent games in Red Deer, Alberta. In the bronze medal confrontation against Sam Scivier of British Columbia on March 1, Kosciukiewicz won in three straight sets: 11 to 7, 11 to 4 and 12 to 10.
Kosciukiewicz said it feels great to know that his hard work paid off. He had great support from his family and friends and he received many congratulatory messages from the squash community. He’s very thankful to his coach, Neil Harvey, for everything he has done for him. Kosciukiewicz describes Harvey as “a legend.”
He said his opponent in the bronze medal confrontation, Scivier, “is a really nice guy.” Scivier is a fair player and it was a good match. They had a chat afterward and Scivier told Kosciukiewicz about his experiences playing squash in the United Kingdom, where he attends university.
Although winning a medal was an obvious highlight, Kosciukiewicz said he has many more memories from the Canada Winter Games to cherish, including getting to share the experience with others.
“Spending time with the guys on our squash team was great, we had a lot of fun together and got to meet a lot of new people together,” Kosciukiewicz said.
He hopes that more junior players will be inspired to get involved in the sport. Kosciukiewicz likes the tactical side of squash but said there’s always room to improve. There are a lot of good people involved who help each other out.
On the other hand, he likes that it’s an individual pursuit and the only way to improve is working on your own game.
Having graduated from Horton High School last June, the 18-year-old has taken a year to travel and compete out of province. He has been involved in the sport for about seven years and trains mostly at the Kings County Squash Club in Kentville and at SMUfit in Halifax.
With the Canada Winter Games behind him, Kosciukiewicz is looking forward to the upcoming nationals and the Ontario Junior Open. He’s training hard for these events but said the most important thing for him is continuing to have fun.
‘Extremely proud’ of team
Nova Scotia Squash Team head coach Janet MacLeod said Kosciukiewicz has worked very hard on his game, travelling to the United States and most recently Ontario to continue to build on it.
“When at home in Nova Scotia, he does a tremendous amount of solo work – on and off the court – as well as training with the top men in Kentville and Halifax,” MacLeod said.
She said the four boys and four girls representing Nova Scotia performed as expected at the games. With the exception of Kosciukiewicz, the team was fairly inexperienced but they all worked hard together over the last couple of years to get to Red Deer.
The boys' team placed seventh out of 12 and the girls placed sixth out of 11. These were the best results for Atlantic Canada.
Macleod said that she is “extremely proud” of the work ethic and great sportsmanship exhibited by the entire team. She described the games as a “fantastic experience”, one she hopes that Squash Nova Scotia can build on for the next Canada Winter Games.
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