By Aderonke Ojo
Former Nigerian national number-one squash player, Friday Odeh, has urged young squash players to prioritise education alongside their sporting careers, warning that academic development should never be sacrificed for sport.
Odeh gave the advice during the seventh edition of the Squash in Diaspora U-11, U-13 and U-17 Boys and Girls Tournament in Abuja.
He said young athletes needed education as a foundation while developing their sporting careers.
“Education first before squash. There’s no education, there’s no squash. If you don’t go to school, what are you going to fall back on if squash doesn’t work for you?” Odeh asked.
He said he successfully combined education with squash during his own playing career and urged the young participants to follow the same path.
“I combined squash and school. My school came first, then my squash, and that’s what we instill in every kid to think about,” he said.
Odeh disclosed that coaches were encouraged to monitor the academic performance of young players and check their school results to ensure that training did not interfere with their education.
Meanwhile, a Board of Trustees member of Squash in Diaspora and the Nigeria Squash Federation, Lanre Taiwo, has expressed optimism over Nigeria’s growing profile in international squash.
Taiwo said the decision to move the annual tournament around the country was deliberate, with the organisers determined to ensure that the competition did not remain concentrated in the South-West.
“We’ve been taking it here and there. It won’t be South-West affairs only. That’s why you see us in Abuja,” he said.
He disclosed that the organisers were already considering another location for next year’s edition.
Taiwo also highlighted Nigeria’s participation at the 2026 World Championship in Canada as evidence of the country’s progress in the sport.
“If you go back to the website of the 2026 World Championship in Canada and see how our people performed, you’ll understand,” he said.
He noted that Nigeria had gone several decades without taking junior players to some major international competitions, making recent participation an important development.
Taiwo expressed confidence that Nigeria was increasingly positioning itself among Africa’s leading squash nations.
“We are coming up. In fact, apart from the Egyptian players, Nigeria is next,” he said.
The organisers said the ultimate objective was to establish a development pathway that would take young players from primary-school participation through junior competition and eventually to national and international levels.
The U-11, U-13 and U-17 categories are therefore expected to serve as important platforms for talent identification and the development of Nigeria’s next generation of squash players.
