Amanda K. Sobhy is the only American, male or female, to ever win the squash World Junior Championship. She\'s the 10th-ranked woman in the world. Sobhy has been the collegiate national individual champion since her freshman year, and has led her team to two team championships in 2012 and 2013.

Sobhy frequently starts sentences with "when I go pro," before enthusiastically detailing her post-graduation plans. She\'s already set.

"You have to base yourself somewhere. You need your team of people. I\'m going to base myself in Boston. I\'ve been here for four years and I have so many people who can help me," Sobhy says.

I asked her to meet in her favorite place, but we\'re not sitting courtside at the Murr Center, the home of the Harvard squash. We\'re in a cozy living room in Pforzheimer House. She adjusts her DHA sweatpants and walks over to the piano.

"The squash courts would be so obvious,” Sobhy explains. “I love to do other stuff besides squash. Off the courts, I\'ve spent a lot of my time here because I really like to sit down at the piano and sight read pop songs and sing to them."

Singing and house life complement a rigorous training and competition regimen. Sobhy\'s "outside coach," Thierry Lincou, was the men\'s world No. 1 starting at age 24. The college schedule works with the flow of the international circuit. Sobhy travels to tournaments throughout J-term and follows an intense workout regimen during the summer.

"There are a ton of tournaments overseas that I never got to play,” she says. “Either in high school or here. It\'ll be interesting when I fully go pro. I\'ll be able to go to Macao and Monte Carlo."
She\'s maintained a high level of play in college. She keeps up with team practice, whether with the men\'s or women\'s teams.

"I play with the guy’s team and get matches,” Sobhy says. “I still train with the girl’s team. The level of play is different, but I have conditions and restrictions to make it interesting for both of us."

Sobhy\'s parents helped her make the choice to head to Harvard rather than going pro right after high school. Both of her parents played at a professional level. Her father was her coach until a few months ago. "[My parents, siblings, and I] always check online to see how people are doing,” she mentions. “We have a little group chat, we always post our results there first."

Sobhy misses singing. She sang in a choir from 4th through 12th grade.

"I sang one semester in choir, the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus,” she says. “One time a week for three hours, it was too much of a time commitment."

Sobhy sees a future fusion between her athletic and academic interests. "I\'ll want to build a squash academy in the U.S., a universal base that everyone can go to for training, coaching, building a life around the game. I would love to help build that up. It\'s been growing a lot in the last few years."

It\'s also about creating a more democratic sport. "There should be places for people to get exposed to squash without it being seen as an upper-class country club type experience," she suggests.

For now, she\'s focused on maintaining the balance she\'s carefully built over three and a half years at Harvard. "At the start, it was a lot of time management, knowing what to do to stay alive,” Sobhy says. “At this point, I\'m on top of my game."