With the good vibes of Valentines still in the air Squash Yukon hosted their, slightly belated, I Love Squash Valentines Day Tournament. The ball whizzed around the courts pinging off the walls of the squash courts at Better Bodies.

The players were divided into five divisions, everyone there for the love of the game. Mackenzie Cameron was playing in the Mixed A/Open division. In his final match against Peter Mather, he had to pull out due to muscle cramps.

Cameron said he could have pushed through the cramp but he has the Canada Winter Games to think about in a week’s time - squash runs during the second week of the Games.

In preparation for the Games, Cameron said he had to join as many tournaments as possible.

“As many tournaments you have to play in you have to join them,” said Cameron. “I’m going to be going down south to guys who play in tournaments every weekend it’s going to be tough competition.

“You grow so much more if you go to more tournaments than when you just go to practise and hit a ball around. If you don’t have the experience you can’t put all your practise into it.”

Cameron has played in Outside tournaments before including the past Games when he barely squeaked onto the team. His prior experience, he said will help him at the Games in Red Deer, Alta.

“I went four years ago and was the number four spot for Yukon,” said Cameron. “I got my butt kicked but it was still a lot of fun.

“I’m not going to be as starstruck as I was the last time, well I still will be. There is going to be a lot of good competition over there. I guess I am just really looking for it. I won’t make the same mistake as last time. I just ate pizza. Every day there was pizza around. It was like a wonderland for a 13-year-old.”

Cameron will be competing in both the individual and team event and suspects he will be playing Ontario in the early rounds - a challenge he is relishing.

“I’m probably going to be playing Ontario in the first round of singles,” said Cameron.

“That’s going to be a lot of fun, usually they have the best players from there. It’s going to be a great experience all around.”

Now the elder statesman on the team, Cameron said there is a good foundation of youth now playing squash.

“We’ve got a lot of the younger kids that are on the team,” said Cameron. “We don’t have a huge junior program but it’s growing a lot. There just isn’t a lot of kids in my age group. So we got some kids that are going to use these games to get the nervousness out of their system. (Then they will) train for another four years, come back and I hope they will play really well because they have some talent.”

Cameron played in the Mixed A/Open division. The final match for the division was played between Stephen Grundmanis and Julien Revel in front of a packed crowd. The two played back and fourth squash each taking a game early in the match. Ultimately it was Revel who came out on top.

The Mixed B final was equaling as entertaining as both Karmas Idrees and Nikhil Sharma laid it all on the line.

Spectators were treated to some spectacular diving desperation hits. In the end, it was Idrees who came out on top.

Eric Johnson beat out Karen Larkin for the Mixed C title. Darwin Murray was able to outlast Noah Kurzynski in the Men’s D division. And in the Women’s Novice bracket Laura Wells came out on top defeating Echo Johnson.