It's Thursday and that means it's time to be Legendary. In this week's episode, the Rec League Legends take on Dartmouth women's squash player Julia Watson '12.
Back-to-back defeats at the hands of D-I athletes left the Legends questioning their abilities and even left Katz wondering, "Would I even get recruited at Middlebury?"
When Watson agreed to a battle of the sexes, the Legends regained their swagger. Katz has a storied racquet-sport past (All-County tennis honorable mention for three straight years) and Ludlow is a dark horse Masters favorite so this looked like a big chance for the Legends to get their first win.
Watson grew up in Rocky Mount, N. C., a hunting destination known primarily for its four-star miniature golf courses and large, immobile deer. She is the daughter of Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes, and her sister Emma Watson stars as Hermione in the Harry Potter movie series.
Watson attended Phillips Andover Academy, where she was awarded a full scholarship for "status." Andover's list of notable alumni include George Bush, Bill Belichick, George Washington's nephew, Ian Accomando '12 and Jesus Christ.
Watson first picked up a squash racket in 10th grade. In high school, she was heavily recruited by the D-II and D-III squash world, but in the true Legend mindset, refused anything less than D-I. After arriving in Hanover, Watson walked on to the Big Green squash team her freshman year.
As usual, the Legends did not take their opponent lightly, and spent much of the week brushing up on their German to better communicate with head squash coach Hansi Wiens. Ludlow bought a new racket so that he could go into the match "undefeated with his hardware," while Katz ate lunch with star men's player Nick Sisodia '12 multiple times always at the Hop.
The Legends also looked to past squash greats, Jansher Khan and Jonathan Power, for inspiration. Ludlow searched for every way to quickly grow his mustache to match the legendary "King Khan" while Katz searched every thrift store in the Upper Valley for fresh Power-esque bandanas.
More than any other week, the Legends knew that hydration would be key for a good showing against Watson, so they entered into negotiations with the manager of the Courtyard Cafe to make every fountain spew blue Powerade. While the Legends' argument was compelling and included both PowerPoint slides and pie charts, the Cafe decided to stick with their "variety."
The Legends arrived at the court 15 minutes late because they were busy filling out recruiting questionnaires for various Dartmouth sports. After finishing up a practice with assistant coach Busani Xaba, Watson had been volleying by herself for 19 straight minutes Legends never stop.
Things got ugly fast when Watson refused to kick Dartmouth men's squash players Sisodia and Robbie Maycock '13 off the center court to allow room for the Legends to be seen by an audience. With the stage set and tensions running high, Watson took on Katz for the first challenge.
Katz started the match by hitting multiple of his trademark "boast and boast" shots all of which failed to reach the front wall. This didn't stop him from yelling out, "I eat boast and butter for breakfast."
After going down 8-0, Katz wiped his sweat on the back wall, tied his shoelaces, winked at Watson and began his comeback. After seeing Katz bring the score back to 9-5, Watson said, "Yeah, with the new scoring you can really make good comebacks," and then beat him on the next two shots to win the game.
Fresh off a lesson with Busani that morning, Ludlow did his normal mental warm up by sitting cross-legged with his back against the glass, listening to the recording of the morning's lesson in his headphones. After hearing his last drop-shot winner of the day on the recording, Ludlow hit Watson with the ball, called a stroke and said "Let's play, it's 1-0."
Ludlow lost quickly, 11-4, and doesn't want to talk about it anymore, although he will admit to burning his bandana and cancelling his subscription to Squash Magazine. Katz headed upstairs to Alumni Gym and maxed out on the bench.
The duo found consolation in the wisdom of "The Sandlot," however "Heroes get remembered, but Legends never die."
The Legends would like to thank Watson and the Dartmouth squash program for making this dream match a reality. And when the women's squash team faces off against Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and Mt. Holyoke College this weekend, the Legends will be there. Will you?
