I feel privileged in many ways, happy family, nice house, health, career etc but I realise that I am also very lucky to be able to spend time with what I believe are some of the smartest, most determined and hardworking people in Canada.

The thing is these people range from under 13 to 16 years old.

The group I refer to is the Canadian Junior Squash team, this last weekend they played in the annual Battle of the Border tournament against the US at WhiteOaks Resort in Niagara on The Lake.

In its twelve year, with the US winning the last 7 events, the annual cross-border challenge was one for the books with Team Canada coming out victorious over Team USA 13 matches to 11. The Battle of the Border teams are comprised of the top 4 players from each country in boys and girls under 13, 15, and 17 categories.

So why is there so much to learn from these young men and women?

Their work ethic is exceptional – anyone who has played squash knows that you need to be incredibly fit, in order to play at this level these kids are training hard pretty much every day.

Being fit is not enough - squash is like playing chess at 1000 miles an hour, they need to stay mentally sharp under intense pressure, often the deciding factor between winning and losing is which player maintains their focus.

They love what they do – there is very little media coverage or money in squash even at the highest professional level. These players are in this for the love of the game, the challenge and the thrill of playing.

They work as a team - Squash is an individual sport, but outside of competition these juniors support each other, they share tips, encourage each other and the senior players help coach the younger players. When they do play together as a team as happened last weekend they are a formidable force.

So congrats to Alex, Sarah, Molly, Summer, Mohamad, Griffin, Gabriel, Jacob, Zihao, Marlow, Lucia, Haley, Charlotte, John, Nikhil, Mitchell, Ali, Cynthia, Emma, Nicole, Andrea, George, Julien, Ryan and Akasham.

With a generation of young men and women like this our future is in very good hands.