September 30, 2026
Construction to begin on a 10-court facility adjacent to the Athletic & Fitness Center
BY KAREN INGRAHAM
Rector Kathy Giles, members of the Board of Trustees, students, teachers, administrators, and staff members gathered on the second floor of the Athletic & Fitness Center on Friday, Sept. 25, to celebrate a new era in the School’s storied squash program. At a special groundbreaking event, hard hats were donned and shovels used to ceremoniously “break ground” in a trough of colorful red and white sand, heralding the start of construction on a new 17,000-square-foot squash center to be built adjacent to the AFC.
With an opening projected for late 2027 or early 2028, the new facility will honor the School’s proud history as the birthplace of squash in North America by ensuring greater access to the sport for players of all levels and globally recognized programmatic excellence for generations of student-athletes. “It will be wonderful for Big Red to be together,” Rector Kathy Giles noted in her remarks, highlighting the increased visibility the squash program will have at the AFC. “The community of the School is something we’re all deeply invested in,” and she expressed gratitude to the donors and Board of Trustees who are “reinvesting in the excellence of the student experience.”
SPS squash is considered one of the best interscholastic high school programs in the United States with nearly 100 students participating each winter at the JV and varsity levels. For more than a century, SPS squash teams have used the McLane Squash Courts, which opened in 1915 to replace the first courts erected in 1884 by Lower School Pond. Despite efforts within the past 10 years to modernize McLane to match the program, the building can no longer fully support the current and future needs of an expanding and highly competitive squash program.
The new squash center will provide superior coaching and competition for athletes, broader access to the sport for all community members, and capacity for top international talent training and tournaments. It will feature two glass exhibition courts, eight international singles courts, and ample seating with unobstructed views to every court, plus a trophy room designed to celebrate the history of squash at SPS. McLane will remain in use for athletes new to the sport and for recreational squash players. Both locations combined will make St. Paul’s School one of the largest squash facilities in the world.
It will be wonderful for Big Red to be together. The community of the School is something we’re all deeply invested in.
— Rector Kathy Giles
With the new squash center accessed from the second floor of the AFC, the area underneath the facility will be utilized to provide an additional 2,000 square feet of general fitness and training space available to all students and community members. The expansion of strength and weight training spaces in the AFC for SPS teams will relieve significant pressure on the existing weight room, which often reaches capacity in the afternoons as teams schedule training sessions.
In his welcome during the groundbreaking ceremony, Athletic Director and Varsity Squash Head Coach Chris Smith P’28 spoke about the possibilities this new center creates for the student community. “When we set out two years ago to build a new squash facility, we felt … the responsibility to build something that will transform the sport once again,” he said. “[O]ur squash students …. will have a home that matches their commitment to the game — they will spend countless hours here working, improving, competing, laughing, supporting one another, and creating memories that will stay with them long after their final match at St. Paul’s. And for the student who has never picked up a squash racquet, [they will have] an opportunity to try something new, discover the game, and perhaps find a sport and a community they never expected.”
Board President David Scully ’79, P’21 shared his appreciation for the donors who have stepped up to help fund the project to date and had a prediction about the opportunities the new facility will provide. “We have an Olympian wall right down there,” he said, referencing the exhibit about the School’s 28 known Olympic athletes. “There are no squash players on it yet. That’s going to change.”
Fundraising for construction of the new squash center continues, and community members interested in supporting the project are invited to contact Chief Advancement Officer Scott Bohan ’94, P’24,’25 at sbohan@sps.edu.
The squash center was designed by the architecture firm Sasaki Associates and will be built by Concord-based Engelberth Construction.