13 minute read
Athletic Journeys for Every Generation
MAC Facilitates Family Ties Based on Shared Love of Fitness
By Jake Ten Pas
Photos by Brandon Davis
Love is the main ingredient in families, which come in all shapes and sizes. Love for each other is paramount, but shared passion for a common pursuit can deepen existing bonds and even forge new connections.
Member families similarly take many forms, from self-contained adults focused on their own journeys to children, eager as dandelion fluff to set sail on the wind of every activity MAC blows their way. Some can trace their club history back generations, while others are the first in their line to call themselves Portlanders and looking to grow a scion rooted in this fertile soil.
As the Rose City’s oldest social and athletic institution, MAC has plenty of programs for every age ready to assist families in cultivating new traditions or carrying on longstanding ones. Read on to see how two such crews are digging into an array of athletic opportunities, planting their lives, and love, into landscapes rich with potential.
HONORING HISTORY
DEEP ROOTS
The specifics of any two families might be wildly different, but zoom out, and the similarities in the shapes of their lives emerge. Hadley Malcolm and Dorothy Davenport are the daughters of Chris Malcolm, whose parents joined MAC in 1965, and Anne Mangan, who traces her own family membership back to her grandparents. Hadley and her husband, Sam Kallevig, have two children, Harry (3) and Ella (1), and Dorothy is married to Cody Davenport. As a family, their interests cover almost the entirety of club programs.
The membership timeline of Shashank Khandekar and Deepti Iyengar — and their two kids, Mishka (12) and Raul (8) — is short by comparison. The history of the family’s connection to their primary sport, on the other hand, is nearly as long as the lifespan of the rubber trees used to make squash balls. Since Shashank’s great grandfather was a doctor in the British Army who learned squash while serving, and the practice carried on through the generations to Shashank and his children, that means the math is only a tad squishy.
“I spent five days a week in a military officer’s club where it was all squash and swimming, and when you walked in through the front door, you couldn’t wear athletic attire. I had years of arguments with my dad about why my shirt had to have a collar,” he says, smiling. “Now, when I say, ‘Listen, Raul, we are not walking on this side because you’re wearing shorts and sports shoes,’ it takes me back to the culture I grew up in and the same sort of dynamic that played out 25 years ago with my dad.”
Squash isn’t just a game, it’s the discipline that goes with it, Shashank asserts. Like so many parents who encourage their kids to participate in youth sports, he and Deepti hope their kids both play to win and carry over lessons about proper conduct and etiquette into their off-court lives.
Hadley and Sam also see their own relationships with sport as being instructive to their children, as did her mom and dad before them. “For both of my parents, exercise was a big part of their lives, and Dorothy and I saw that,” she says. “Now I’m trying to do the same thing with our kids. I think it’s important that they see that Sam and I each exercise for ourselves. I want to foster that sort of commitment in them.”
In her own childhood, Hadley played soccer, took dance and swim lessons, and eventually got into synchronized swimming, water polo at Lincoln High School, and then rowing in college. “I’ve always really enjoyed pushing myself physically. I like seeing how much I can do,” she says.
Anne and Chris also are driven and have tried out almost every sport MAC offers. Some they loved, like handball and tennis, respectively. Others not so much, but Chris says, “I have no regrets about trying those sports — or leaving them where they should be.”
Some parents make their kids try a bite of any dish before they say they don’t like it, and this was Anne and Chris’s approach to sports with their own children. Unsurprisingly, it reflects how Anne was raised at MAC, although without nearly the same array of choices.
“I grew up with parents who said, ‘We want you to learn a lot of sports.’ But that was before Title IX, so girls really couldn’t do much except maybe tennis, golf, and track. When Hadley and Dorothy grew up, they could do whatever they wanted, and Chris and I both let them know that it was important to be active.”
“As a child, I participated in a large number of club offerings. I remember Tiny Tots gymnastics, swimming lessons, synchronized swimming camp, tennis, and dance classes,” Dorothy recalls. “We also participated in many of the MAC summer camps that would involve games in the gym or pool.”
From the perspective of a working mom, Anne was grateful for those camps. “The girls had lots of options, and they didn’t love all of them, but they found ones that meant something to them. That’s sort of how they determined the path they took.”
Anne notes that it’s “super gratifying” to see that the value they place on exercise is shared by their kids and grandchildren. “Our hope is that they’ll have the same kind of positive experience that has evolved for us and for our kids.”
These days, both grandparents enjoy watching the most recent generation dip their toes into this community that has served their family so well. “We’re very supportive of Harry and Ella. We’re there for the swimming, for the soccer, for whatever extracurricular activity they’re doing, just to encourage them to keep doing it,” Chris says.
CREATING LEGACY
FLOWERING PURSUITS
In the oft-sampled words of rapper Rakim, “It ain’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re at.”
That’s not to diminish the advantages of being raised at MAC, but to reinforce that half of the adults in this story grew up without the club as a backdrop. This hasn’t stopped them from finding an abundance of ways to create a new kind of MAC legacy.
The Khandekars relocated to Portland specifically for MAC Squash. At least it was one-third of a trio of interests that also included the green of local scenery — not so much in their former home of Arizona — and great beer. After Shashank visited for a squash
tournament, he returned to Tempe to ask Deepti if they might find a way to move as soon as possible. Three years later, they made the leap on the strength of his zeal, joining MAC in 2023.
“He’s only 42, but he’s been playing squash for at least 60 years at this point. He plays five or six days a week for around two hours a day, so he’s really hardcore into it,” Deepti says of her husband. For a long time, she resigned herself to joining other spouses such as her mother-in-law in the bleachers. When Shashank tore his ACL while skiing shortly after they finally joined MAC, she decided it was time to play.
“The kids were just picking up squash all over again after Covid, and I was like, ‘I’m not going to let that opportunity go,’ so I jumped on court. Once I did, I found this amazing community.”
Deepti describes MAC Squash as “very inviting,” and says that she’s watched the number of women playing at the club and around Portland grow significantly just in the past couple of years. She’s now a member of the Squash Committee and even traveled back to another former home, Philadelphia, for a tournament with 15 of her fellow members in December.
“We won a whole bunch of divisions and had a blast together. All of that is why I stuck around even though [Shashank’s] knee is OK and he’s back on the court. I just enjoy the people.”
Sam tells a similar story about the attraction of MAC Tennis. Despite basketball being his primary sport growing up in Minnesota, he always enjoyed watching the Grand Slams and harbored ambitions of maybe one day learning to play for real. After college, he set about learning more about the game and playing consistently, and it became a regular part of his routine while he and Hadley lived in New York.
It was after they moved back to Portland to be close to her family while starting their own that the sport took on a new dimension, that of platonic matchmaker. “It’s hard to meet people and make friends if you’re working remotely in a new city, and so that’s been one of the awesome things about MAC sports and, for me, tennis specifically. You’re meeting people, you play, and then you grab beers at the Sports Pub after,” he says. “I feel like the power of sport to make friendships and connections is awesome. Once you’re into adult life, it’s a lot harder to do that than it used to be when you were a kid.”
Like Sam, Cody didn’t grow up in the MAC community. Since joining in 2019, he’s been playing catch-up, seemingly attempting to try as many of the sports that Dorothy had access to as possible.
“I’ve explored many of the activities including tennis, squash, handball, climbing, classes, and more,” he says. Over the past three years, he’s gotten into triathlons and other endurance events, so now his use of the club is to train for those. “Actually, my introduction to the sport was at the Spring Sprint Triathlon a few years ago. Since then, I’ve ramped up training, and the MAC is integral to that. I don’t think I’d be nearly as committed to it if I didn’t have access to pools.”
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
SEEDS & OFFSHOOTS
Whether members are new to life, recent additions to the club, or entering a fresh phase of their existence, the cornucopia of fitness and wellness possibilities abounds.
Being pregnant and having kids completely changed the way Hadley approached exercise, and she reports taking it much easier on herself these days, generally opting for group classes such as MAC Fit or yoga on a Friday afternoon.
“It’s tough in the immediate postpartum months to not feel like you can do the same things anymore. I put pressure on myself to try to get back to what I was, and I don’t even mean from a physical body point of view, just from the time commitment,” she says. “The biggest thing that I have changed is my perspective around, it’s okay if I’m not working out seven days a week for an hour at a time. That’s just not something that I even want to be doing with my time right now. I want to be able to wake up on the weekends and snuggle with my kids and make pancakes and that’s the choice that I’m making to do that and not go to the MAC.”
To escape the isolation of remote employment, she now works from the club on Wednesdays and generally takes a break for a class around lunch or later in the day. But often her trips to MAC involve a larger family contingent, whether it’s for the kids’ swim lessons, Family Fridays, or just a Saturday morning ramble around the courts to help Harry burn off energy. As members like her grow through new life stages, the way they interface with physical activity and their primary destination for it evolves.
Located between all three family households — hers and Sam’s, Cody and Dorothy’s, and Anne and Chris’ — MAC also serves as a convenient meeting place, whether it’s to watch the kids in the pool, support Anne during a MelloMacs performance, cheer on Sam competing in a tennis tournament, or just share a meal and catch up.
Dorothy enjoys watching her niece and nephew begin their exploration of the space that will provide a lifetime of fitness and community. “I want them to take classes, explore multiple sports, and find something that they love. Most of all, I hope that as a family we can instill in them the idea that fitness can look different for everyone. The most important thing is to make it part of your life in some form.”
That form continues to change for Chris, too. The former handball player says he aged out of his primary sport but is still a regular in the Fitness and Strength Rooms. Anne remains a fixture on the Tennis Courts, but both are open to wherever their bodies take them.
Chris paraphrases friend and first-time Hank Marcus Lifelong Athlete Award winner Chuck McGinnis when he says, “Stay active no matter your age, and as you age, ease into it.”
Relatively speaking, Raul and Mishka — Shashank and Deepti’s children — are just beginning their own journeys, but they’re already forming habits that might someday give them the same dedication and passion for sport as their parents. “Raul lives on the Squash Courts,” Deepti says, and while Mishka might not be quite as obsessed with the sport as her little brother, coach Dulce Ramirez has done an incredible job of drawing in her and other girls and young women. Both junior Khandekars are learning valuable lessons about life and themselves.
“Raul’s learned to shake hands with his opponent on the court and apologize when needed. He’s learning how to keep calm and be a good human,” Shashank explains. “On the other hand, Mishka is sometimes timid and extremely cautious. Squash is teaching her to be tenacious, push through, and get stronger. We see them every single day moving and improving in the right direction.”
Both parents like that their kids know how to interact with adults and are developing the kind of social skills that eventually will help them with college admissions and job interviews.
“That support system has to exist to develop that passion, and I think they do great with it here,” Deepti says. “This has become a big part of who we are.”
