By KRISTOFER VENEZIA
BRONX CORRESPONDENT

Fordham University students at Rose Hill have probably seen him walking around campus or even riding a stationary bicycle at the gym, but rarely, if ever, has a student asked for his autograph. Maybe ONE should.

Fordham Men’s Squash head coach Bryan Patterson coached some of the best players and participated in some of the most prestigious tournaments around the world. Patterson, who lives just a stone’s throw away from the Rose Hill Campus, was ranked 16th in the world and 2nd in England during his career in the sport.

One of the Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, England, native’s most memorable moments came when Patterson made the jump from an amateur to a professional.

“I actually got to the finals of the World Championships in 1973,” Patterson said. “I was a qualifier, I probably wasn’t supposed to be in the first round, but I got to the finals and was able to turn pro, and people knew who I was because of that.”

Today, Patterson spends his time mentoring young players, teaching them how to play the game he loves. Outside of coaching the Fordham squash team, he also devotes a lot of time to training children with CitySquash. This non-profit organization is an after-school program that gives financially disadvantaged children in New York City the opportunity to learn and play squash. Patterson said he enjoys coaching the young athletes.

“I’ve always loved coaching kids and [CitySquash] is a chance to coach kids who have never really known the game at all [and] their parents don’t know the game,” Patterson said. “There’s a lot of raw talent out there with inner-city kids and it’s been exciting.”

CitySquash began in 2002, and the group has trained some gifted athletes at the courts on the Rose Hill Campus. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article about two women from CitySquash who compete in tournaments for Columbia University and Cornell University, two of the best programs in the nation.

The program holds practices at the squash courts in the Lombardi Center on weekday afternoons. When CitySquash finishes up, head coach Bryan Patterson sticks around as the Fordham Men’s Squash team hits the court to train.

Ross Garlick, GSB’15, has been playing squash for Fordham for two years. The junior never played competitive squash before coming to college in the Bronx, but he said he has grown to love the sport he can play all year long.

“I was a tennis player,” Garlick said. “I wanted to keep up my racket sports when the weather turned cold, and I started playing squash… it’s an exhilarating game.”

A native of Knutsford, England was one of the Fordham athletes to be honored last year at the Breakfast for Champions due to his success as a student-athlete.

Garlick said he and his fellow Fordham squash athletes are lucky to have such an accomplished professional coaching them.

“Since coach [Bryan] Patterson came in, the team has consistently improved,” Garlick said. “[Fordham Men’s Squash] used to be more casual; now we’ve become much more competitive, and as a result we’re seeing improvements when we play against opponents.”

Garlick also said his coach is a celebrity when the team goes to tournaments at other schools.

“When we were at the team championships at Yale last year, everyone knew who head coach [Bryan] Patterson was,” Garlick said. “Players and coaches from other colleges that were there kept coming up and saying ‘hi’ to [Coach Patterson].”

The Fordham Men’s Squash team was ranked 48th among Division I teams at the end of last season. Garlick said the goal this season is for the team to reach the top 40.

Head Coach Bryan Patterson will be working to get the men’s team in top form with very competitive tournaments coming up in February, but he is also working to get a women’s squash team consistently representing Fordham. Patterson said there have been clinics held for aspiring women athletes with a good number of players in attendance, and he is hoping to get a team together soon.

CitySquash students will soon be able to compete in the Urban Team Nationals, which will take place from January 25th-26th at SquashSmarts, Drexel U., & U. of Penn, in Philadelphia, PA.