It may not have the household names of tennis or the new cult following of pickleball to kick it along, but Pittwater High School student Jackson Wylie wants to be front and centre in returning Australian squash to its glory days.

Currently completing his HSC, Jackson has been balancing his studies and sport with great results.

In the September school holidays he took out the under 19 title at the Australian Junior Squash Championships, finishing undefeated while also captaining the NSW team to overall wins in Division 1 and 2.

It came after he competed at the Junior World Championships in Egypt back in July.

With squash added to the roster of sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics for the first time, Jackson has less than three years to progress from top junior to standout senior and gain a position for Australia at the Games.

It’s a tough task but one he relishes.

“I’m pushing to be the guy who represent Australia in LA,” he said.

“It will be absolute hard work, but it’s what I’m training for. I'm planning to go to the UK over the summer because of how squash is in Australia. I've sort of hit that top of the bar of where I am right now.”

Once an immensely popular sport with a rollcall of champions on the world stage, Australian squash has fallen on harder times over the last two decades.

There are less than half the number of courts in the country from the turn of the century and squash is no longer in the top 20 sports played in Australia.

But Jackson remains a passionate advocate for a sport introduced to him at Mona Vale Public School when he was in Year 4.

With the school running a weekly program at Elanora Squash and Fitness Centre, he quickly fell in love with its strategies and the high-powered workout it offers.

He was offered a place at the centre’s junior academy and started to improve rapidly, eventually moving into the adult program and then high-performance program. Jackson is now doing up to 15 on/off court sessions a week.

“The school has played a massive role in all this,” he said.

“Obviously with the HSC on, this is taking up a lot of my time, but my teachers have really helped to enhance my learning with the limited time I have. They’ve supported me in catching up with work and promoted me with my sport; it has been fantastic.”

After the HSC, Jackson will take a gap year to train and play across Europe to see just how far he can get in the sport. Ultimately, he’d like to go to university and continue his studies as well.

In the meantime, he’ll also look to promote squash through his own coaching and perhaps become that player kids can look up to and help regenerate the sport.

“I’d love to see the schools out there include squash in their programs,” he said.

“Elanora runs an awesome program for the kids the get involved with, and get excited for.

“I started at square one to become a national champion there and that started from the school program and then the junior program.

“This is a good opportunity to play and participate in an Olympic sport. “If it (squash) then gets to Brisbane (2032 Olympics) you’ll see a large influx of kids pushing forward. And it would be a massive pinnacle for me to get there.”