M. Squash Season Preview | Raho keeps it all in the family

The family that plays together stays together.

Senior Joey Raho's loved ones are no different.

"[My parents'] first date was a squash match," said Raho, whose older brother Nick also played for Cornell.

Penn coach Craig Thorpe-Clark agreed.

"Unlike maybe football, where only Dad and the boys could play, you know, squash is a whole family game," he said.

So while it may have been destiny for the younger Raho to become a collegiate squash player, the glassed-in courts at Rye Country Day school in Rye, N.Y., came second to the gridiron and baseball field.

Squash didn't seriously enter the picture until high school.

Because his class was so small, Raho broke into Rye on both sides of the football as a running back and a free safety. By his junior year, he was the starting halfback, helping his team post a 6-2 mark.

His stats were impressive, at least by his own recollection: 800 yards and six touchdowns in eight games.

"I was pretty happy with it," he said.

Raho switched shoulder pads for a mitt in the spring to play center field and hit fifth or sixth in the lineup.

"I was more of a role player in baseball," Raho said. "I like to think my defensive ability was pretty strong, but I was never a huge hitter."

He competed in two New York State private school championships in three years, winning in the final inning his sophomore year and losing in the same fashion his senior year.

Playing sports as different as squash and football had its challenges.

"I'd come off the football field and I'd be really huge - huge for my body," Raho said.

"It would always take me a month or two of just running everyday to get down to more of a playing weight for squash."

But he made it work, and he followed his brother's path to the Ivy League - albeit indirectly.

The older Raho, Nick, played for Cornell several years ahead of Joey.

"He was always nervous," Thorpe-Clark said of Nick.

And even though the younger brother had competed for years - winning several national squash championships for individual junior tournaments - the idea of playing football at Amherst still entered the equation after high school.

"I loved the football experience so much and the camaraderie with my teammates," Raho said. "It wasn't something I wanted to give up at all."

Raho wound up at Boston College, where he took time away from squash. When he decided he was ready to return to the game, it was much to the delight of Thorpe-Clark.

"I was very fortunate that .when he decided he wanted to come back into the sport, wanted to go to a school that had a squash team, that we were one of the first calls he made," Clark said.

Raho took a while to get here, but he's picked the game with a heck of a future, according to Clark.

"He's going to play squash for the rest of his life."

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