Faces of MAC

Diving Into New Experiences

“Ever since I was a young kid still in summer league at Grant High School, the [Olympic] trials have been in my sights. Seeing the best athletes in the world compete was my favorite thing to watch every four years, and to be given the opportunity to compete not once, but twice (2021, 2024) was a dream come true.” So says Kevin Keil, who isn’t competing in the current Summer Olympic Games but came close enough to smell the Seine all the way from Indianapolis, where he competed in the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.

“Just getting to swim at that meet was amazing, regardless of my performance, which I was happy with, too,” he adds. Overall, Keil placed 62nd out of 91 and moved up nine spots from where he was seeded. He also achieved his goal of dropping time from his previous trials in 2021. “Getting to see people I know qualify was another unreal experience. People who were my childhood friends are now the top in the world, and for me that is unbelievable.”

Keil’s likely been on member radars since at least 2021, when he was awarded the Mel Fox Amateur Athlete of the Year Award at the annual Celebration of Champions. That year, he started college at the University of Pennsylvania, and he says he’s been swimming, studying, and preparing for his professional future ever since. Having just graduated, he plunges into his next pursuit — a master’s degree in design management at the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design. He also has one more year in the National Association of Collegiate Athletics league due to missing a year of eligibility during the darkest days of COVID.

“It will be a new experience coming from Portland, then moving to Philadelphia, and now Savannah, Georgia. Though I am sad to leave Penn, I have made so many lifelong friends from all over the country in and outside of the pool, and I am eternally grateful for them,” Keil says.

“Professionally, I’d like to work as a product manager who could be a liaison between the business and design portion of a company.”

As for his athletic future, Keil hopes to get involved in triathlons and water polo. “In the past, when I was in town and visited the MAC, it was so fun to play water polo with old friends, and it gave me a greater appreciation for the sport. Swimming has served as a great basis for that, and I love that it is something you can do into your old age. My 95-year-old great-aunt still swims, so it gives me hope for my future with the sport.”

More immediately, Keil is pumped to watch the Summer Olympics. “One of my close friends is competing in the 200 breaststroke and has a good shot at winning, so I’ll be cheering him on!”

Recognition & Reflection

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows MAC Squash Pro Julian Illingworth that he’s approaching his recent inclusion among the greatest players of his sport with typical humility. Rather than taking a victory lap, he views his upcoming induction into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame as an opportunity to step back and reflect on the past while pondering his hopes for the future.

“For one thing, it shows my age! When you start receiving lifetime achievement awards, you’ve obviously been at it for a while!” he jokes. “In all seriousness though, connecting with many of the people who I worked with and who helped me at some point in my journey is a really nice bonus.”

Like many kids in a variety of sports, Illingworth initially was brought down to the courts because his dad played, and then was signed up for clinics after school. “I can’t really remember when I didn’t think of myself as ‘a squash player,’ which is an interesting distinction I see now when I coach juniors. Some kids quickly identify as a squash player, and others might play for months or even years without getting over that hump and making that connection to the sport. I was definitely attracted to the intensity of the game, and the emotional response I got, both positive and negative, from winning and losing.”

According to Illingworth, squash demands so much of a player physically, technically, and mentally, which makes it really compelling at the highest level. Deciding how to train, and where to spend time and energy on improving, is a constant process. Every sport at a high level has thin margins between success and failure, but he says few are as complicated as squash.

“I think that’s also the most fun part of coaching — trying to find the most efficient way to help an already good player improve their level,” he says.

Like the young players he coaches, Illingworth also got his start at MAC. He credits the experienced and engaged tutelage of former squash pro Khalid Mir, and the fact that Mir saw great potential in him even at a young age. “Those formative years gave me an early foundation of skill and technique, and also a love for the game, both of which are necessary to succeed in any sport long-term.”

From ages 18 to 30, Illingworth lived on the East Coast, occasionally returning home to catch up and feel the support and pride of the MAC Squash community. When he moved back to Portland with his wife, Sarah, in 2014, it was initially tough transitioning from an area with hundreds of clubs in which squash was a primary focus, to a locale with essentially one real squash program. Now with two sons, he reports that his priorities have shifted, and he feels privileged to have the opportunity to support the club’s efforts to inspire the next generation.

“Being a father of two rowdy boys has definitely made me a better kids coach!”

After all his reflection, Illingworth still says picking one proudest moment or accomplishment within his journey through sport is a tall order. “There have been so many tough battles, good rivalries, hard losses, and unbelievable situations. I think ultimately, I’m proud that I’ve stayed true to myself during my career. I didn’t back down from challenges, and I wasn’t afraid of putting myself out there, showing emotion, and being myself. I’m also proud that many of the people who helped me along the way are still great friends; maintaining long-term relationships is an underrated aspect to being happy in life.”

And Illingworth continues to seek new challenges, both professionally and personally. He’s rehabbed several houses and developed a small subdivision. A weekly board game group sees him and friends playing European strategy games that can take four hours to complete, and then there’s whitewater rafting and kayaking.

“You can’t predict what’s in store for the future, so I try to take what life gives me and live it with passion,” he says. “Something I share with many high-performing athletes is an intense and even emotional demeanor during competition, but then a removed and detached analysis after the fact. The ability to get up, move on, refocus on the next point, the next match, the next opportunity, is the most transferable skill from sport to life.”