Squash is a family affair for women’s squash co-captain Kristen Lange.
Although several other players on the Penn team have siblings who also compete nationally, Lange finds herself in an even more unusual circumstance. She sees her home coach of 13 years, Azam Khan, as an honorary family member.
“I’ve known him most of my life,” she explained. “He’s most definitely family to me.”
But it was her mother, Jackie, who taught her the game after she moved at a young age from her birthplace in California to Seattle.
“I would always be outside the court, either playing games with my friends out there or doing something,” said Lange, who was eight when she picked up the sport. “Since my Mom was playing and I was always there it was kind of the natural option for me to start doing what she [did].”
Mrs. Lange did not want to pass on her “bad habits”— as Kristen described them — to her daughter, so she teamed her up with Khan, a family friend. It was the beginning of a coaching relationship that has continued into Lange’s final year with the Quakers.
This kind of long-term coaching phenomenon is “becoming more and more unique,” according to Penn coach Jack Wyant. “A lot of kids today have multiple coaches throughout their junior careers.”
Both of Lange’s coaches have contributed to the training of what Wyant describes as one of Penn’s “star athletes.” Already an established competitive player before coming to Penn, she is the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year and has reached the finals of the CSA Individual Championships for the last three years, earning her the No. 2 ranking in the country for women’s collegiate squash.
While Lange was quick to emphasize Wyant’s contributions to improving her technique, the influence of her time under Khan’s tutelage is evident in her regular contact with him.
“Trust me, he’s involved!” she said, laughing. “I talk to him at least once a week [and] text him all the time.”
Trips home to Seattle involve not only regular squash sessions with her longtime coach, but also basketball games with Khan’s sons.
“He has a big family himself, and I’ve always been kind of adopted into that family,” she stated. “I do a lot of activities with them.”
Wyant has learned to appreciate the role of Lange’s mentor, as both have coached her at a past tournament.
“We actually have very similar ideas about the game,” he stressed, “so it’s been a good relationship.”
Lange’s squash family has come to include not only her mom and coach but also her teammates. Recently she lived with fellow seniors Sydney Scott, Britt Hebden and Christina Matthias. Hebden and Matthias were Lange’s high school teammates.
Hours spent together at practices and long road trips to away matches have created a strong bond between them, a factor Scott, now Lange’s co-captain, identifies as a contributing factor to their strong squash relationship.
“I think she leads the team with how much she loves squash and how hard she works at it,” Scott said. “For a girl who’s been ranked second [for] three years in college she’s a very modest player.”
Lange was delighted with this year’s selection of freshmen players for a personal reason.
“One of the girls [Yarden Odinak] is from Seattle so I’ve known her for a really long time,” she beamed. “That’s really exciting to me.”
Looks like Lange’s family of squash players just got bigger.
