Women in Squash - Pat Millman

Pat Millman, “a real country girl”, began her squash career at the age of thirty. For the last twenty-five years, her life has been anchored by her pure love of the game of squash. She has played at the highest levels, helped her daughter rise to the professional ranks, coached, owned and managed clubs and is the center of a network of squash family and friends. Pat is married to Richard Millman, one of the best promoters of the game of squash. “The Millmans” are a fixture on the US squash scene, and the country girl who didn’t know she could inspire others has inspired many.

Pat Millman grew up in the English countryside in Norfolk with very humble beginnings. Her parents never owned a car or house. She was always an athlete and started out as a national level runner. In high school, the school headmaster called her in to his office to tell her that she had been scouted as a runner and invited to train at the “3As” (the Amateur Athletic Association – the UK’s top track and field association where Olympic hopefuls are trained). She asked her parents if she could join the 3As, but they did not have a way to get her there (it was over fifty miles from her home). She had to give up this opportunity, which was a big disappointment but it opened her eyes to what opportunities were waiting out in the world for her.

Her family’s expectation for Pat was to finish school, get a job and contribute to supporting the family. She began working at sixteen and her first job was at Aviva INS Union Insurance Company. The company had major athletic facilities at their head office, and Pat played on two corporate field hockey teams.

Once she got married and had a couple of children, field hockey took too long to play. She wanted to find a sport that she could enjoy but took less time. A friend took her to a “housewives morning” at a local squash and tennis club, and from the first time she stepped on the squash court she fell in love with the game. So began her squash career, she played every moment that she could and began competing as part of a league team.
When her daughter Louise was ten, she asked to play squash because Pat played. Pat met Richard Millman, a county coach, who coached her daughter to win the Under 19 and Under 16 County titles when Louise was fifteen. Louise also won the Under 19 Grand Prix tour (similar to the WISPA tour) when she was fifteen and the Swedish Under 16 Open. Meeting Richard opened up opportunities for Pat. She knew that she started squash too late to be a great player but she could be the next best thing – a coach and teacher. She also fell in love with Richard and they became a couple with an extended family.

In 1993, she moved to California with Richard and Louise so Richard could pursue squash coaching in the US where the international game was just starting to take hold. Louise continued her winning ways, beating Pat on her sixteenth birthday in the finals of the California State Championship. As soon as Richard landed in the U.S., he began meeting everyone in the squash community and promoting the new international game. Three months into their U.S. stay, Richard was asked to organize Mark Talbott’s Prince Future of Squash California tour because of his unique abilities as spokesperson and promoter of the game of squash. The Millmans’ relationship with Mark Talbott grew from there. Mark wanted Louise to go to his Rhode Island National Junior Squash Academy (her ability was well above any other women in the U.S. at that time). Mark asked Richard to be a director at the Academy, and later he asked Pat to coach on her own there.

The squash playing Millmans moved to Atlanta the next year. Pat and Louise faced immigration issues, as Pat could not work as she did not have a green card and Louise could not attend school. Louise decided to go pro and Pat decided to focus on getting her coaching qualifications. Pat also continued to play competitively at the highest levels. In 1994, she was the runner-up and second ranked player in the U.S. Women’s Over 40 flight. The Millmans moved from Atlanta to Ithaca, N.Y. so Richard could coach at Cornell University. Pat assisted Richard with the Cornell varsity men’s and women’s teams.

Pat took some coaching opportunities as they came. She managed and coached at the Concord/Acton Club outside of Boston where she developed a top women’s program. As Pat says, “The best thing about coaching women is that their lives are harder with children and a husband, so it takes a lot of effort to fit squash in and be committed to it.” Pat inspired the women at Concord/Acton. Sarah Lemaire, one of the women she coached, said to Pat “If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have been playing squash”. Pat never expected to have such an impact on people and it is one of her proudest achievements.

After Concord/Acton, Pat made a move to the Westchester/Fairfield County area as Peter Briggs asked her to work with him at Apawamis in Rye, NY., where Louise was coaching and training . Louise far outstripped all the U.S. players at the international game, was playing as a pro and won the National Under 24 title and the U.S. Junior Open. On one visit back to England, Louise met a young man that she ended up marrying. She now lives in England, has two children and plays for a local team. Pat also established a squash program at Sportsplex in Stamford, succeeding where several coaches before her had failed. Pat was glad to be getting coaching experience but did not like being separated from Richard. She eventually got her green card and was offered a job at Cornell to be the Assistant Coach to the varsity team and Cornell Squash Club manager, where she could reunite with Richard.

In 1998, the Millmans got the chance to fulfill their dream of owning their own club. In partnership with their dear friends and mentors Eric and Patty Fast, they bought the Westchester Squash Club, which had five narrow courts, which they gutted to create four international courts. What Pat liked about this project was that she was doing it together with Richard. They did it all, the renovation, opening and closing the club and all of the coaching. They ramped up to six coaches on staff and courts that were fully booked with recreational players to pros. At the same time, Pat also coached The Hackley School and helped starte up the squash program at St. Luke’s School in CT.

On the playing front, Richard and Pat went to the 2001 World Masters. Pat got to the final eight of the world 45+. She played Vicky Cardwell in the 45+ singles (Cardwell had been a World #1 player) and got knocked out in the quarterfinals. In the 7/8 playoff, Pat lost in five games to Ray Anderson, one of Australia’s best players and former top 10 professional. For someone who had picked up squash at age thirty, these were amazing results. Pat attributes her ability to play at this level to the fact that she is a good athlete, fast and relies on her lob and drop game.

Pat wanted to get back south, she had loved living in Atlanta and a job at the Charleston Squash Club opened. Although not traditionally a squash area, the developer of Kiawah Island, Buddy Darby, believed that squash had a future in the Low country. He built courts on Kiawah and was the moving force behind building of the Charleston Squash Club. When Richard and Pat moved down there in 2006, the Club had 35 members. The Club now has over seventy members, over a hundred players and junior squash is on the rise in the area due to the Millmans. Several private schools are training their varsity teams there and they may start an urban program. Richard’s son Joe is with them in Charleston, and is also playing on the pro tour. In Charleston, just like all the other places she has gone, Pat has touched women squash players’ lives. Dr. Elizabeth Slate, a professor of statistics at the Medical University of South Carolina came to Pat’s clinics and at 40+ played in her first tournament in a women’s C division. She dedicated her most recent book to Pat with the inscription, “To Pat Millman, who is such an inspiration to me.” Dr. Slate’s husband, John, came up to Pat and said, “You don’t know what a difference you made”.

Along with moving back south, Pat’s priorities now have shifted. She is semi-retired and her priorities now are to go back and forth to England to see her grandchildren and help take care of her mother. Pat has led a multi-faceted life filled with children, moving from the UK and across the US to support Richard’s coaching career, launching her daughter’s professional squash career, playing and coaching herself. She said that she would never have imagined this path for herself. Pat Millman went with her talents, took opportunities as they came and in the process achieved squash greatness.