By Kalle Oakes,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Bates College has blanketed the back wall of its squash complex with the flag of every nation represented on its current men’s and women’s teams.

There’s Hong Kong, Thailand, El Salvador, Zimbabwe and Jamaica. Oh, and the United States, of course. Walk around a corner and you’ll find the emblem of Uzbekistan, purportedly the home of a fictional recruit. It’s a practical joke directed at one rival team from the New England Small College Athletic Conference, just to get ’em thinking.

“We stole the idea from Yale,” said Bates coach John Illig. “They have 25 flags on their wall. That covers all the years.”

Bates will run of space before you know it. Illig answers e-mail from all over the world. Last week was India. Next week, the inquiry might come from Pakistan or Paraguay.

It’s a sign of the times in a little-known college sport that’s played more freely in the rest of the world than in the United States, where squash would give anything to generate even morbid curiosity.

“I came from a tennis background. All the old squash players played tennis,” Illig said. “Now, kids around the world, 3, 4 and 5 years old, play only squash.”

College squash teams were once the exclusive domain of prep school students from wealthy, American families. But foreign-born players have seized the spotlight.

Bates’ top men’s player, Ricardo Weisskopf, is a first-semester freshman who attended a German-speaking public high school in El Salvador. The women’s No. 1 for the Bobcats, Melissa Lue Yen, is from Jamaica.

Weisskopf lost only one match in his first college campaign. He became the first Bates player in six seasons to defeat the No. 1 player from an Ivy League opponent.

After playing both squash and soccer since he was 9, Weisskopf gave up scoring goals in high school. Instead, he chose a rigid squash training program that required him to practice every day from 3:30 to 7 p.m.

“I enjoyed it. As time passed, it became something I really needed,” Weisskopf said. “I couldn’t stop playing.”

Bates is thankful for that commitment.

Backed by Gary Kan of Hong Kong on the second rung of the ladder and Sean Wilkinson of Zimbabwe at five, Weisskopf steered Bates to a final ranking of 13th in the nation. Lue Yen’s ladies wound up ninth.

Wilkinson said squash has a rabid following in Africa, as well.

“We had junior national teams all the way from age 12 to 19,” said Wilkinson. “We have quite a few Zimbabweans over here at the moment. The level of college squash is very high. People have played all over the world on the international circuit.”

About 200 players call the El Salvador club home. While Weisskopf says that isn’t many, it dwarfs junior interest in squash in the U.S.

“Not more than 10 years ago, my entire team would be prep school players,” Illig said. “It’d be this snooty, country club sport. In other countries, it’s not like that. It’s like racquetball is here. There’ll be squash courts just like we have a juice bar and weights. They play it like crazy in other countries.”

Even Illig’s pipeline to noted prep school programs, including St. Paul’s, Taft and Tabor Academy, is flowing freely with foreign talent.

Bates recently played at a team championship in which the son of author Tom Wolfe was the No. 9 player for Trinity College.

“I believe he was the only American,” Illig said.

To Weisskopf, his choice between Trinity, Williams and Bates was the equivalent of a blue-chip basketball player mulling over Duke, Syracuse and Michigan State.

“All the top squash programs are pretty much great academic schools, so my advisor and I just did a search for squash programs,” Weisskopf said. “Bates was the one that fulfilled all my requirements.”

The Bobcats gleefully mounted Weisskopf’s flag on the wall. With more players of his magnitude waiting in the wings, it might be wise to save room for a banner and trophy or two.