In March of 1995, Greg Zaff sat down to lunch at Boston’s Cottonwood Café with long-time friend, Molly Downer, past president of the Massachusetts Squash Racquets Association. Zaff, a former top-ranked squash professional from Boston, had recently graduated from the Kennedy School of Government. He and Downer spent that lunch discussing his idea for a youth enrichment program for disadvantaged kids, featuring the sport of squash. 

Zaff left that lunch with Downer and, at her urging, began writing down his ideas. The challenge of translating the concept for SquashBusters into an actual program took place over the next 18 months. From Zaff's initial drafts, he determined that the primary goal of SquashBusters was to use squash as a means for enriching the lives of disadvantaged kids. Zaff believed that SquashBusters needed to be intensive in order for the program to truly impact its participants. He outlined an initial plan: a 20 week per year, three-year program with additional educational, squash, and social learning opportunities available for the kids.

During those 18 months Zaff established relationships to enable SquashBusters' realization. A small but committed Board of Directors was recruited, which instituted quarterly meetings and worked to raise the $65,000 first year budget. A flurry of other activities followed: Zaff met with squash club managers to convince them to donate court and classroom time; school partnerships were established at the Timilty Middle School in Roxbury and the Harrington Elementary School in Cambridge; City Year signed on as the team's community service partner; a large number of volunteers were recruited to help teach squash, tutor academics, and mentor the kids; Zaff secured Prince as the team's racquet and shoe sponsor and leased a 15-passenger van. At the conclusion of the tryout process twenty-four students from 6th and 7th grade were selected to participate from a pool of 80 interested candidates. Selection involved weekend squash, fitness, and academic try-outs, combined with meeting school teachers and parents.

The first official SquashBusters season commenced in September of 1996. Practice and tutoring sites included the Cambridge Racquet and Fitness Club, the Harvard Club, and Harvard University. All other daily operations ran out of Zaff’s spare bedroom in Cambridge. Each student attended 90 practices during the first September – May season. Collective attendance was 95% – quite an achievement for a group of students who, before joining SquashBusters, had never even heard of the sport of squash or held a racquet in their hand. In addition to the squash lessons, academic tutoring, and community service experiences, the team played in several weekend tournaments, competed in head-to-head matches with eight private school squash teams such as Groton and Andover, and took a weekend trip to New York City.

Over the next four years, Zaff, and the people who joined him to work for the program, reflected constantly about how to improve the program for the kids. In its first five years of existence, SquashBusters strove to make a major impact on the lives of its participants. With success came the potential and social responsibility to grow.

Given the limited number of squash facilities in Boston, the only viable way to grow SquashBusters was to build a dedicated squash and academic facility within the community where the kids lived. Zaff dedicated three years to securing funds, a partner, and a place to build such a youth center.

In the summer of 2003, in partnership with Northeastern University, SquashBusters opened its home on Columbus Avenue in Roxbury Crossing. Today, in its 12th year of programming, many of SquashBusters' goals have been realized: increasing the number of kids in its programs, running summer camps for urban youth, and establishing deeper ties to the community by bringing together people of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds.

Fall 2007 marks SquashBusters' 12th year serving Boston’s youth through squash, academics, and community enrichment. Program enrollment is at an all time high with two middle school teams and a high school team, all students participating for a full nine months during the school year. Never before has SquashBusters made such a difference as its making now!