After tragedy at the MAC, Portland’s squash community opened its doors
On a tournament disrupted — then brought back together.
Many of you are likely familiar with the story that happened at the Multnomah Athletic Club earlier this month, when a former employee drove a car filled with explosives into the club’s front lobby, killing himself and causing significant damage to the facility.
It was a terribly sad event, but as can be the case in tragedies, there was some inspiration to be found in the response.
I’m not a member, but I was playing in a squash tournament there that weekend. I had a match Friday night and was getting ready to head down to the club for my Saturday morning match when I saw the news.
Understandably, I figured the tournament was over. There were still dozens of matches to be played for the tournament’s 80 players, including a professional draw that brought in players from around the world.
Then came the texts: the tournament was still on — just not at the MAC — as the Lloyd Athletic Club, Reed College, Bay Club and Hawthorn Farm Athletic Club quickly agreed to host the final two days of the tournament.
“We initially looked at potentially just running the pro draw games as well as a few out-of-town matches to at least give the traveling players some court time and started looking for a venue where we could ask for a few hours of court time,” MAC squash pro Werner Hergeth said. “So we asked the four clubs with courts with the hopes of one club saying yes. We got a quick response from one club, and then another…and a few hours later, we had all four venues opening up their doors to us.”
Now, it wasn’t seamless. Many of the players had left their gear at the MAC and didn’t have access to their shoes and racquets — a problem solved by a WhatsApp group text where non-MAC members offered up their own gear for the weekend.
By the end of Sunday, 76 matches had been played on the different courts, including my final two in the men’s 4.5s: a loss on Saturday at my home club, the Lloyd, followed by a win on Sunday at Reed.
Of course, results aren’t why I play in squash tournaments. The community is the draw, and since I’ve moved to Portland, I’ve always been thankful for the MAC’s openness to facilitating it and supporting the sport. The club hosts numerous tournaments throughout the year, opens its doors to non-members for league play and is a place where I’ve met many of the friends I’ve come to rely on in this city.
And it was really cool to see other clubs do the same to make the most out of a terrible situation.
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor