Cavalier Corner

February 2022

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FEBRUARY 2022 27 BY MELISSA DUDEK I n March 2020, the Virginia men's squash team was wrapping up a ban- ner year. The team had won the Potter Cup Consolation Final, placing fifth in the tournament for the best finish in program history. The squad's meteoric rise through the ranks of the sport was ignited by a pair of first-years playing at the top of the ladder: Aly Hussein and Omar El Torkey. Hussein earned first-team All-America honors, and El Torkey, a second-team All-American, was the 2020 Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference Player and Rookie of the Year. With both of those players still having three seasons of eligibility remaining and Taha Dinana, a top recruit and a member of the men's national team, committed, there seemed to be no stopping the Hoos. "We had just finished the [2020] sea- son," Hussein recalled. "[Head coach] Mark [Allen] came up to me and Omar one day and was like, 'You guys should go home.'" "Home" was Cairo, Egypt. Dinana, who is from Cairo as well, also received the same advice from his boarding school in Connecticut on how to handle the pandemic shutdown and returned home to Egypt. All three finished their school years online. Whereas the majority of the team and the UVA student body returned to Grounds last year, Hussein, El Torkey and Dinana re- mained in Cairo, navigating being a student- athlete 5,900 miles away from their profes- sors and classmates, and their coaches and teammates. "It was pretty difficult because you're home, and home is different," Hussein said. "You want to chill all the time and hang out with your friends. And Egypt is seven hours ahead. So if a class was at 3, for us it was at 10 p.m." Hussein's biggest challenge was an inter- national relations discussion that took place at 2 a.m. Cairo time. "Sometimes, I wasn't able to attend it [because] it was so early," Hussein said. "I had to communicate with a TA and explain the situation. Everyone was nice about that and understood the situation pretty well." For the most part, they studied alone, except for a J-Term class that Hussein and Dinana were taking together. They would meet at Dinana's house to attend the virtual class together. As for the other half of the equation, all three stopped playing squash for varying lengths, with El Torkey having the longest break. "I took a whole year off, which was very much needed," El Torkey said. "I got back at it in May [2021]. I started practicing for a month or two. I kind of got back in shape in those two months, which was crazy. "I don't know how I did that. But then I started competing again in a couple of pro- fessional tournaments back in Egypt before coming back, which boosted my confidence and got me ready for getting back to prac- ticing during the season." El Torkey picked up his first professional win in those tournaments, winning the PSA Challenger in Cairo in July. Meanwhile, Hussein worked out at home during the beginning of the pandemic. "We had a garage that I was working out in," he said. "Once COVID got a little better in January, I was able to go to my club and train there. "It was difficult, but I had to do it. I didn't have any other choice." Hussein's training paid off. He won the 2021 Odense Open tournament in Denmark that earned him a spot in the PSA Squash World Championships in Chicago in July. His performance has also moved him into a top-100 world ranking. For Dinana, the return to training came after a six-month lapse. He was able to work out with the staff and trainers and his team- mates on the Egyptian National Team, which helped him get into playing shape. The transition to becoming a member of the Virginia squash team was a longer one. Though there were numerous team meet- ings and meetings with the coaching staff via Zoom, he didn't feel part of the program until he arrived on Grounds this fall for his second year. That transition was made easier by his two roommates, El Torkey and Hussein. "I needed their guidance," Dinana said. "They showed me how to go to class and be on time, and things like the dining hall and which foods to pick. They've gotten me through everything, especially in workouts. "We push each other, like some of the time one of us is too lazy to go work out, so we have to get him off his butt. But it's [got- ten] a lot better and easier. And it's actually really fun going to class." Dinana, who was projected to play at the No. 7 position in the Cavaliers' lineup, is instead at the No. 3 position for the team, right behind Hussein and El Torkey. Once again, there seems to be no stop- ping the Hoos. " I needed their guidance. They showed me how to go to class and be on time, and things like the dining hall and which foods to pick. They've gotten me through everything, especially in workouts. " DINANA ON EL TORKEY AND HUSSEIN FAR FROM HOME UVA Men's Squash Players And Cairo, Egypt, Natives Omar El Torkey, Aly Hussein And Taha Dinana Have Formed A Strong Bond

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