Despite a rocky start after losing player and captain James Kontulis ‘21 to an injury, the Boys Varsity Squash team has rallied together under the leadership of Kontulis and co-captain Cameron Hill ‘21 to shape up for a great season. 

As Peter Cioffi ‘23 said, “We’ve had four matches… Unfortunately, we’re 0-4 as a team but… three of the matches we lost by one match. They were all very close.” 

The team has high hopes as their season slowly gets in motion. Cioffi commented, “[We hope] to just improve and that our team will win more matches then we did last year.” 

Liam Patty ‘21 added that for the future he hopes “everyone [will] improve a lot so… we can do a lot better.”

 Kaan Savasoglu ‘23 said he simply wants to win! 

When asked what he loves most about squash, Patty said, “I think it’s fun, and I like the competitiveness.” 

Cameron Hill ‘21 said that his favorite thing about being a co-captain is “[getting] to organize some aspects of practice.” 

Hill also enjoys “being a role model, especially for the younger kids… and exercising leadership skills.” As a role model, he likes “being a part of the team” and getting to play with other people. 

Despite an ACL tear that required surgery and resulted in him sitting out this season, James Kontulis has led his team with grace from the sidelines.

Kontulis played squash at St. Luke’s for two years but has been playing the sport since he was in 4th grade.

Kontulis commented,  “It was a tremendous honor to be selected by my teammates as a captain this year… I have never been that vocal of a guy so I am not going to be a captain that is going to give some awesome, motivational speech, but I instead will try to lead by example and let my play and work ethic do the talking because I have always admired that type of leadership.” 

Kontulis also talked about how coaches from wherever he has played have helped him grow and “taught [him] the importance of being a good sport because at the end of the day, your character and who you are as a person [are] much more important than whether or not you are a great player.”

James is extremely dedicated and selfless, and he said that sitting out this season “is a huge disappointment… and has been killing [him].” But through all of that, he adds that he is still “[helping] out Coach and the team as much as possible… showing up to all the practices and matches.”

However, he has gained a newfound perspective of the game. He points out that “we have a very young team and many of our players have shown tremendous growth and will be great players for SLS for many years to come.” 

Kontulis has learned that he will “appreciate every day that [he is] on the court because [he] will know how frustrating it was not being able to play.” 

The rest of the team, Thomas Arnold ‘22, Jonathan Conti ‘21, Carter Lightburn ‘25, Angad Sethi ‘24, Peter Cioffi ‘23, Kaan Savasoglu ‘23, Liam Patty ‘21, and co-captain Cameron Hill ‘21 have been playing hard this season lead by Head Coach Brian Mathias. 

Kontulis eagerly watches and cheers on his team and looks forward to returning to the court during his senior year.