Canadian Coach Mike Way To Lead Harvard Squash

Mike Way, the squash trainer who coached Canadian Jonathon Power to the top of the men’s world rankings, will now lead the Harvard men’s and women’s squash teams as head coach, Way said in a phone interview today.

Having successfully guided numerous players into the Professional Squash Association’s and Women’s International Squash Players Association’s world rankings, Way will try his hand at leading a collegiate team after running several camps for young squash players and providing advice on technique in an instructional video series.

“I want to hit the ground with a lot of energy, a lot of structure, but I’ll be listening very much to the two captains and the teams,” said Way, who currently coaches at the Oakville Club in Oakville, Ontario. “I think we’re going to have quite an exciting program.”

Some work—such as receiving a visa, selling his home in Ontario, and finding a new residence in Massachusetts—remains to be completed, but Way said he has signed a contract with the Department of Athletics.

The athletic department has not confirmed Way’s appointment, but an official announcement may come later this week, Way said. Timothy Wheaton, an associate director of athletics who led the selection committee, said Wednesday that “when we announce it, we will announce it.”

Way will take the reins of the Harvard squash program after the controversial dismissal of Satinder Bajwa in April. Last season, the women’s team won the Howe Cup—the team national championship—but the men’s team, which took second place nationally at the start of Bajwa’s tenure, placed fifth for the second straight year.

At the time, athletic director Robert Scalise said in a press release that the athletic department “decided to go in a different direction with the leadership of the program.”

A man who has led several players to worldwide prestige, Way’s most notable success was the career of Power, who clinched the No. 1 spot in the Professional Squash Association’s world rankings in May 1999 and held that rank for 14 months during his career. Power retired from professional squash in March 2006 after reclaiming the first-place spot from Australian David Palmer, though he still played for the Canadian national team at the World Team Championships in 2007 and 2009.

Way has also coached other noteworthy players, including Graham Ryding, a three-time Canadian squash champion, and Shahier Razik, who won the most recent Canadian squash championship—his fourth—after Power withdrew due to a leg injury.

But though Way has never headed a collegiate team before, he does have experience coaching younger players, including rising sophomore Laura Gemmell, who posted a 16-0 overall record at No. 1 on the women’s team last season en route to an individual national championship. Working with junior squash players, Way said, enables him to participate in a “broad spectrum of coaching” and illustrate to players that as young adults, their abilities can still improve.

“I want us—and I know it sounds like a cliché—but when I tell them I really want them to enjoy the program, I mean it,” he said. “I really want to show them they can still develop as players.”

Way said that finding assistant coaches will be among his top priorities when he arrives in Cambridge, but rather than radically changing the existing program, he said that fundamentally, he’ll be doing what any other coach would do—“working very hard and very smart”—though he does offer his players this piece of advice.

“Get ready—and I mean that with an exclamation mark.”

—Staff writer Martin Kessler contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.