In Neil Pallaver's freshman year at Phillips Exeter Academy, he was cut by the wrestling team.
"I thought I was gonna be a wrestler," Pallaver said." Pallaver's wrestling goals may have been shattered, but eight years later, the senior has established himself as the top squash player at Tufts.
Pallaver's squash career began his sophomore year in high school, and he has clearly come a long way since then. Playing in the 18th spot on a 21-player roster, he made little impact his first year.
"I started out at the bottom," Pallaver said. "The beginning stages of a sport are the most fun and its fun to climb the latter."
By the end of his junior year he ascended to the sixth spot by the end of the year and was playing in the third spot by his senior year. This is quite a feat considering that his high school team actually defeated Tufts in a scrimmage during his senior year.
For Neil, making a decision about college was an interesting process. Neil had the opportunity to play squash at Trinity with a full scholarship. However Pallaver knew that he would struggle to gain prominence on such a loaded team, and he also took academics into consideration.
"I would have had to work my butt off to make the top 20," he said.
Pallaver arrived as a freshman and quickly rose to the number-one spot. Clearly his experience at Phillips-Exeter prepared him well for college, as he would stay at that top spot for the duration of his four years at Tufts. Teammate and co-captain Collin O'Higgins described Pallaver's ability to hold on to the number-one spot as "remarkable."
"His strength is really his intelligence on the court," coach Doug Eng said. "He knows how to make his opponent work harder."
In his sophomore season, Neil saw a series of brilliant performances. Playing against Stanford's top player, Pallaver was down 7-1 in the fourth game losing the match two games to one. Amazingly he was able to rally back and win the game clinching the match. "The way he played the last game was brilliant," Eng said, "he really put everything together."
Pallaver feels that the sport is at its best when players are quite simply trying to out-smart each other. "The attraction of the sport to me is to watch players move someone around on the court until the opponent does something wrong," he said
His Achilles heel however has been his love for another sport. Since early high school, Pallaver has played and is currently a starter on Tufts' Frisbee team. "I know I have put a lot more time and effort into Frisbee," Pallaver said.
This devotion to another sport has made his relationship with Eng somewhat difficult at times. "He thought I could have been even a lot better than I am," Pallaver said.
Nevertheless, the two clearly have a great deal of respect for each other. "I commend him. He puts time, effort and emotion into the team," Pallaver said, "We want to do as well as we can not just for the team but for the coach."
Pallaver has also had a very special relationship with his teammates over the years. "I love the team," Pallaver said. "I have as much fun with these guys as I do with anyone else."
