Betty Constable knows all about winning.
She knows about winning better than John Wooden, better than Joe Torre and better than Red Auerbach.
Constable, who established the Princeton women's squash program, won 12 national championships as the Tigers' coach in a 20-season span from 1971-1991.
She finished her 20-year career with a 117-16 record and was instrumental in expanding the Howe Cup -- a major women's tournament -- to include a collegiate division, which would become the national championship.
Naming a tournament after her was the least Princeton could do.
So this weekend, Penn and a host of other schools will send players to vie for the championship of the Constable Tournament, one of collegiate squash's most prestigious individual events.
The Quakers do not have to worry about putting their No. 5 national ranking or their 3-1 record on the line since the tournament is purely for individual competition.
The event that will run from today through Sunday at Princeton is organized into flights with Penn players scattered among three divisions.
Current Princeton coach Gail Ramsay is no stranger to winning either. The Penn State graduate is the only four-time intercollegiate squash champion in history, and also won back-to-back national championships as the Tigers' coach.
She attributes the success of the program to its matriarch, Constable, and is thankful for the opportunity to honor her with a tournament.
"It's a really nice way to remember someone who has done so much for Princeton women's squash," Ramsay said.
"She took Princeton from a beginning program to a top team in the country."
Quakers coach Jack Wyant, who graduated from Princeton, knows Betty Constable personally and watched his sister play in the Constable Tournament. So if anyone knows what this weekend is all about, it's Penn's first-year head man.
"Although it doesn't have any bearing on the team standings, it's a prestigious tournament, so it would be a nice thing for one of our players to walk away with a flight," Wyant said.
The top two players on the Penn ladder, sophomores Paula Pearson and Radhika Ahluwalia, will be competing at the premier level in the Constable bracket.
Penn's seven other attendees are placed based on their ratings, with Annie Barrett, Lauralynn Drury, Rohini Gupta, Elizabeth Kern and Caitlin Russell in the 5.5 bracket.
Caitlin O'Neil, who won the 3.5 bracket last year, and Chloe Wynne will be competing for the Quakers in the 4.5 bracket.
Although the team record cannot be altered, this tournament still holds a lot of relevance to the players, who are concerned with their own national rankings.
"New rankings come out after this weekend, so [the Constable Tournament] obviously has a big impact on them," Ahluwalia -- the nation's 20th ranked player -- said.
While the Constable Tournament is a celebration of the past, Penn will be looking to the future this weekend. The Quakers are using their individual tests as a chance to bond as a team by cheering each other on, and prepare for the squad's battles ahead.
"I'm looking forward to them supporting one another and playing hard and fine tuning and getting ready for the stretch run for us," Wyant said.
And what a stretch run it will be.
After departing Princeton on Sunday, the Quakers will travel right back there Wednesday night for a matchup with the No. 3 Tigers, a team that handed Penn a 6-3 loss in Philadelphia last season.
They then finish the season with four straight home games including visits from No. 4 Harvard and defending national runner-up Trinity, currently ranked second.
But the Quakers should be well-rested for the grueling final stretch. Today marks Penn's first competition since a Dec. 5 shutout of Brown -- a span of 47 days.
"Everybody had a good rest over the break and they seemed to come back strong," Wyant said.
Pearson, who is ranked 13th nationally, believes the players will be well prepared despite the layoff.
"We're fresh and ready to go, so it'll be good," Pearson said.
Ramsay said that a highlight of the tournament is that players "get to see some of the history."
Constable, now close to 14 years removed from coaching, has lost much of her vision due to a recent stroke.
However, Ramsay is optimistic that the tournament, named in her honor, will bring her to the Princeton campus for the festivities.
After all, there's no better way for the players to see history than meeting the person who created it.
