April 28, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - For the first time in over a decade, Navy has itself a squash All-American. Senior Tucker George (West Hartford, Conn.), the Mids' No. 1 player his entire four-year career, was one of 21 players nationwide who received All-America recognition by the College Squash Association on Monday. George is Navy's first player to earn All-America kudos since two-sport All-American Jamie Slough claimed the honor last in 1994.

A product of The Taft School in Watertown, Conn., George has enjoyed a storybook career at the Academy which began his freshman year when he defeated team captain Gavin Morrison, 3-1, to become the first freshman in program history to win the U.S.S. Barb Squash Racquets Perpetual Trophy. It was the first of four consecutive "trophy" wins for George who also became the first player in the 51-year history of the tournament to sweep the event all four years. He went on to produce a 16-8 record as a freshman and closed out the year ranked 41st in the country.

As a sophomore, he turned in a 15-7 record as Navy's No. 1 player and finished the season ranked No. 47. At the completion of the regular season, George competed in the Potter Division of the CSA Individual Championship which is made up of the top 32 players in the country vying for All-America recognition. An extremely competitive group, he was one of only 12 American-born players among the field.

Voted by his teammates to serve as Navy's team captain in just his junior year, George produced a 14-10 record and concluded the season ranked 28th in the nation. Once again he competed in the Potter Division of the CSA Individual Championship, but was denied a second time of his All-America aspirations. Though his individual goal was cut short, he helped lead the Mids to a 2-1 record in the CSA Team Championship where they placed 10th, the highest by a Craig Dawson-coached Navy team.

George concluded his Navy career by posting a 13-4 record this spring and featured wins in each of his first 12 matches. Despite missing nearly a month with a foot ailment, he returned to the lineup in mid-February to help lead the Mids to a 6-3 win over longtime rival Franklin & Marshall, as well as a 7-2 victory over another rival, Bowdoin in the first match of the CSA Team Championship.

Despite the the end result, perhaps the most memorable experience of his career was in the opening round of the CSA Individual Championship this spring in which he battled fellow All-American Supreet Singh, a member of Trinity's National Championship team, in a glass erected court that took center stage at Navy's Halsey Field House. The raucous crowd of 2,329 made up mostly of Midshipmen, helped spark a 9-1 victory by George in the opening game. Singh, however, regrouped and went on to win three straight games to send George to the consolation bracket. George bounced back with a 3-2 win over Tufts' Jake Gross before bowing out of his final match, 3-0, against Randy Lim of Trinity.

In addition to his achievements at the Naval Academy, George was twice selected to represent the United States on a worldwide platform. Based on his finish in the U23 U.S. Squash Championship in May of 2006, George qualified to represent the United States at the World Collegiate Squash Championship played at the University of Szeged in Hungary in the fall of 2006. Comprised of three men and two women, the United States finished fourth. George, who played against some of the best players in the world, including the top-ranked Swiss player, finished 26th in the individual competition.

Meanwhile, in the fall of 2007, George once again represented the United States at the Under-23 Can-Am Challenge at the White Oaks Resort in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

"Tucker deserved the recognition as a college squash All-American," said eighth-year Navy head coach Craig Dawson, who garnered All-America recognition for the Midshipmen in 1973. "He played the No. 1 position for Navy for four years, and you never have an easy match playing No. 1. He led the Navy team as captain in his junior year and he represented the U.S. twice in world competition. He was the only midshipmen in the history of Navy squash to win the Navy Barb team tournament four years in a row. And on May 23, he will follow in the footsteps of recent Navy squash players Jamie Peace '01, Edson Greenwood '03, Mike Brennan '05 and Mike Rogers '05 and join the United States Marine Corps.

"I also feel Tucker owes the Brigade some credit for his All-American recognition. I know the selection committee felt his performance at the CSA Individual Championship held at Navy was an All-American performance in an All-American setting."

"It is an unbelievable honor to be named and All-American," said George, who not only is an exceptional squash player, but also a stellar student who is ranked 28th in academic order of merit among his class of 1,064 students. "Second to leading the team into the top 10 ranking nationally, this has been my personal goal for all four years. This is something I have dreamed about since I started playing seriously in high school. Earning this recognition validates all the two-a-day practices and summers spent training.

"This is also a huge testament to Coach Dawson," added George. "My squash game has evolved drastically since Coach brought me in plebe year and without the structure of our training cycles and most importantly the maturity and discipline Coach demands, my game would have stagnated at a much lower level. I want to thank my coaches, teammates, physical trainers and my family for supporting my passion over the past four years. This is an amazing culmination to a fun and diverse four-year career."

College Squash Association All-Americans
First Team
Baset Chaudhry, Trinity
Gustav Detter, Trinity
Maurcio Sanchez, Princeton
Kimlee Wong, Princeton
Colin West, Harvard
Jim Bristow, Rochester
David Letourneau, Princeton
Andres Vargas, Trinity
Ricardo Weisskopf, Bates
Manek Mathur, Trinity
Parth Sharma, Trinity

Second Team
Chris Sachvie, Cornell
Hameed Ahmed, Rochester
David Canner, Princeton
Hesham El Halaby, Princeton
Supreet Singh, Trinity
Randy Lim, Trinity
Santiago Imberton, Princeton
Simba Muhwati, Trinity
Tucker George, Navy
Lee Rosen, Penn