Hill Goes To Great Lengths To Play

Athletes are admired for the sacrifices they make for their sports—they wake up early to go to the gym, they force themselves through painful conditioning, and they spend hours practicing when they could be doing something more fun.

But rarely does someone sacrifice something as basic as sleep.

Harvard junior Richard Hill, of the men’s varsity squash team, did just that, going nearly seven months without sleeping for more than two hours at a time.

Hill is Singaporean, and in 2005, after high school, he joined the Singapore Armed Forces to serve the mandatory two-year tour.

An avid squash player from a squash-loving family, Hill at first found himself unable to practice his sport except on weekends.

After nine months, when his basic training was complete, Hill became an infantry sergeant and was posted to the Field Defense Squadron at an air base.

At this point, he negotiated a deal with his superiors, in which he was allowed to leave the base from 3 p.m. to midnight to attend squash National Training.

This leave essentially counted as his shift off, and in exchange for it Hill was forced to be on duty from midnight to 6 a.m., and active for the rest of the day until 3 p.m.

So when did Hill sleep?

He slept, he reveals, when he was on duty. Stationed at night at the base, Hill was in charge of distributing and taking back ammunition at every change of guard. The guard changed every two hours, so Hill slept on a bed in his office for three two-hour increments each night.

Catching up on sleep later was not an option either. Hill slept in this manner five days a week, for nearly seven months straight.

“I had to do my job along with the rest of the squadron,” Hill explains. “But managed to work something out with my superior officers.”

Due to his dedication, Hill represented Singapore in the 2006 Asian Squash Championships in Taiwan. In the past three years, Hill has also become an integral part of the Harvard team. He will likely play number two or three on the ladder this year.

“He just pushes himself through where most people would not be able to,” co-captain Frank Cohen notes.

Few would be able to put themselves through such an experience, but Hill knew squash was his top priority.

“There were times when I came back at night and was really bummed out,” Hill recounts. “It was tough mentally. I told myself to pull through it—this is the game that I love.”

Nonetheless, there were times when Hill second-guessed his decisions.

“I asked myself why I was doing this,” Hill remembers. “I don’t miss [the schedule]. It was mentally and physically very draining. My time here at Harvard has been much more relaxed.”

Hill thinks too that his experience has changed him as a person. The sheer difficulty of his day-to-day routine, he notes, has built a lot of character, and Hill knows he would not be the same person without it.

Now, a junior with the Crimson, Hill finds himself playing squash in about as different a setting as possible. His years in the army, though, are never far from his mind.

“Sometimes I do think about it,” Hill says. “I use that moment in the army as motivation, that if I set myself a goal I could achieve it. When I feel down in the dumps I think about what I put myself through in the army.”

“Knowing where he came from, it’s less of a surprise as to what he’s like on the team,” Cohen adds. “[Hill’s story] explains a lot in terms of his work ethic, his motivation.”

Hill’s military service may help motivate him, but he needs nothing to encourage him to give squash his all. Even talking about the sport gives Hill an obvious degree of pleasure.

“I was very passionate about my squash [ever] since I was back in middle school and high school,” Hill says earnestly.

“My love affair with the game has not been diminished. It has only grown with time. I love the game too much to let it all go.”