Three Squash Players Named All-American

Brunswick’s Max Finkelstein, Brian Leonard, and Nick Spizzirri were named All-American by US Squash for the 2017-2018 season. The trio helped the Bruins win the 2018 HEAD U.S. High School Team Championship and this year’s NEPSAC Class A crown.

 

Recipients are selected through two pathways: players voted on by coaches and league administrators of US Squash-accredited high school leagues or final point rankings from tournaments during the season for junior players in the U19 (top eight) and U17 (top four) divisions.

 

Finkelstein earned his All-American status by a vote of coaches and league administrators from the NEISA, as the Greenwich resident led the Bruins to both the NEPSAC and national titles as the team’s #1 seed. The senior, headed to Dartmouth this fall, won the clinching point in the national championship this season for Brunswick, as well as securing the title-clinching point in 2016 as the #4 seed. Finkelstein also earned All-NEPSAC honors for longtime Brunswick coach Jim Stephens.

 

Spizzirri, from Greenwich, and Leonard, from Harrison, N.Y., were both All-NEPSAC selections and individual New England champions this season. The duo earned their All-American status after top-four finishes after the conclusion of the 2017-18 U.S. Junior Squash Tournaments, as Spizzirri finished second in overall points and Leonard was fourth. The two were also pivotal players in Brunswick’s run to its third national title in four years, as both Spizzirri and Leonard won each match in the tournament in straight sets.

 

Brunswick now has five Junior All-Americans, as recent alums David Yacobucci ’16 and Hayes Murphy ’14 join the freshly-minted trio. Yacobucci was a two-time All-American, winning the award in both manners, first as a U-17 player in 2013-14 and then as a NEISA selection in 2014-15. Murphy, a teammate of Yacobucci at the University of Pennsylvania, earned an All-American selection as a U-19 player.