Built to Win: The Story Behind London SMASH’s Championship Season
Winning a championship rarely comes down to one moment.
It is usually the result of dozens of decisions made long before anyone lifts the trophy, some obvious, some questioned, and some incredibly difficult.
For London SMASH, the road to the 2026 CNPL Championship really began the year before.
Owner and Manager Ed Sater had one goal: build a team capable of winning a championship.
That meant being aggressive. It meant taking chances. And sometimes, it meant making decisions that were difficult emotionally but necessary competitively.
Sater worked hard during the offseason to land one of the most sought-after free agents in the league, Anne-Sophie Courteau, adding another major piece to what SMASH hoped would become a championship roster.
Then came what Sater describes as one of the most difficult decisions he has ever made as an owner and manager.
On draft day, London SMASH traded Jessica Kawamoto.
From a purely competitive standpoint, Kawamoto was a star. She and Ryan Torresin had established themselves as the top mixed doubles team in CNPL history.
But her importance to SMASH went far beyond what happened on the court.
Kawamoto exemplified what the SMASH culture was. Jessica and Ryan were the faces of London SMASH, and the entire Kawamoto family had embraced the team as their own.
For Sater, that made the decision deeply personal.
“Trading Jessica was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make,” said Sater.
“I wasn’t just trading a star player. Jessica exemplified the SMASH culture and had become a face of our organization.
In many ways, I also felt like I was trading away the Kawamoto family.
They were some of our biggest supporters and our biggest fans. They believed in SMASH, supported us and became part of our family. It was an extremely difficult decision.”
There was also the competitive reality of what London was giving up.
Kawamoto and Torresin had developed extraordinary chemistry together and had become one of the most successful mixed doubles partnerships the league had seen. Breaking that partnership apart carried significant risk.
Sater understood that.
But after evaluating where the team had been and where he believed it needed to go, he ultimately decided that standing still wasn’t going to be enough.
“At the time, I believed it was the decision we had to make," Sater said.
“If we wanted to take the next step and ultimately win a championship, I felt we needed to make some difficult changes.
That didn’t make the decision any easier.
There are decisions you make as a manager that are strictly about pickleball, and then there are decisions that affect relationships with people you genuinely care about.
This was definitely the latter.” The trade gave SMASH the flexibility it needed to move up in the draft and continue reshaping its roster.
It was a decision that perfectly illustrated the uncomfortable reality of trying to build a championship team:
Sometimes the hardest move isn’t moving on from someone who isn’t succeeding.
Sometimes it’s moving on from someone who is.
And for Sater, the Jessica Kawamoto trade would remain one of the most emotionally difficult decisions of the entire championship journey.
Draft Day: Building the Foundation
The move allowed SMASH to position itself with the fourth overall selection in the draft.
With that pick, London selected Mark Cleminson, a right-side specialist whose playing style was expected to complement Torresin extremely well.
Then, with the seventh overall selection, SMASH added Aibika Kalsarieva, another major piece of the roster.
The foundation of the starting four was beginning to take shape.
Later in the draft, London selected Natalie Araya, adding more depth to the women’s side.
And then came perhaps the sleeper of the entire draft.
With a later-round selection, London took a chance on a relatively unknown player named Xavier Richard.
Around the league, Richard may not have been one of the names receiving the most attention on draft day.
Inside SMASH, however, there was confidence in what he could become.
That belief would prove to be extremely important as the season unfolded.
Talent Wasn’t the Question - Chemistry Was
Heading into the season, SMASH believed it had one of the deepest and most talented teams in the league.
The challenge was that most of the players had never played with one another.
Talent on paper was one thing.
Finding the right partnerships, understanding personalities, identifying complementary playing styles and developing trust under pressure were something completely different.
SMASH knew it might take time.
Once the season started, however, one thing became apparent almost immediately.
The gender doubles were incredibly strong.
The women were dominant.
The men were dominant.
Mixed doubles was where the experimentation began.
SMASH initially worked through different combinations, including Cleminson playing on the right with Kalsarieva on the left.
Other combinations followed, including Cleminson with Anne-Sophie Courteau.
The issue wasn’t talent.
It was finding the two mixed combinations whose styles best complemented one another.
Eventually, SMASH made another significant adjustment.
Xavier Richard was inserted into mixed doubles, while Mark Cleminson remained an important part of the men’s doubles lineup.
The move began to pay off.
Mixed One and Mixed Two started finding their rhythm while London’s gender doubles continued to be a major strength.
Piece by piece, the roster was beginning to make sense.
Another Difficult Roster Decision
After the second event in Prince Edward Island, SMASH continued evaluating its roster.
Despite the team’s early success, management was not prepared to become comfortable simply because the results were good.
London released Natalie Araya and signed Sophia Racine.
It was another reminder of the philosophy that would define the season.
Every event provided new information.
Every matchup revealed something about chemistry, depth and what the team might need when championship weekend eventually arrived.
The objective was never simply to preserve the roster that looked strongest at the beginning of the year.
It was to build the roster that would be strongest at the end.
Then SMASH Got Even More Aggressive
Following the Mid-Season Classic in Guelph, London SMASH made two moves that sent another message across the league:
The team wasn’t finished.
First, SMASH acquired Lucas Wong from Grand Rapids in exchange for Mark Cleminson.
Then, almost immediately afterward, another major deal followed.
London traded Xavier Richard to acquire Montreal Lions captain and two-time CNPL champion Ernesto.
The moves had people around the league scratching their heads.
How was a team that was already performing at such a high level continuing to add talent?
How had SMASH managed to orchestrate two significant trades and make an already deep roster even deeper?
From London’s perspective, however, the philosophy remained unchanged.
Every decision had one purpose:
Build the team that gave London SMASH the best opportunity to win a championship.
The trades weren’t made simply for the sake of making trades.
They were about matchups.
Playing styles.
Experience.
Depth.
Leadership.
And having options when championship weekend arrived.
Some decisions were popular.
Others weren’t.
Some made sense immediately.
Others required time before the reasoning became apparent.
But Sater and SMASH were willing to accept the criticism and uncertainty that came with them.
The Bigger Challenge: Managing a Team
Building the roster was only part of the job.
Managing it became another challenge entirely.
With so much talent came difficult lineup decisions.
Players were sometimes asked to play roles they weren’t accustomed to.
Others had to sit.
Some combinations changed from event to event.
Individual preferences occasionally had to take a back seat to what management believed was best for the team.
Those conversations weren’t always easy.
But somewhere along the way, the players began to understand something important:
This wasn’t about one person.
It wasn’t about who played the most.
It wasn’t about who received the recognition.
It wasn’t about whose name appeared in the lineup.
It was about London SMASH.
That willingness to sacrifice became one of the team’s greatest strengths.
The Championship
By the time London arrived in Waterloo for the CNPL Championships, the roster had been tested, adjusted, questioned and reshaped throughout the season.
Every move had brought the team to this point.
Every difficult conversation.
Every lineup decision.
Every trade.
Every sacrifice.
London SMASH ultimately defeated United in the final and captured the 2026 CNPL Championship.
The objective that had guided every difficult decision throughout the season had finally been accomplished.
London SMASH were champions.
Two Individual Honours That Told a Bigger Story
Championship weekend also delivered two individual awards that represented different parts of the journey.
Ed Sater was named the CNPL Owner/Manager of the Year.
The recognition represented far more than trades or lineup cards.
It reflected an entire season of roster construction, constant evaluation, difficult decisions, player management and the willingness to make changes even when those changes carried significant risk.
Some of the decisions worked immediately.
Others took time.
Some were questioned.
Some were emotional.
But throughout the season, Sater continued to make decisions based on what he believed gave London SMASH the greatest opportunity to succeed collectively.
And then there was Ryan Torresin.
Torresin received the CNPL Players’ Choice Award, an honour voted on by his fellow players.
That distinction carried a different kind of significance.
Ryan had been one of the foundations of the organization.
His mixed partner changed.
His teammates changed.
The roster around him evolved dramatically.
His role required adjustment throughout the year.
Yet through all of it, Torresin remained a constant.
He competed.
He led.
And he continued putting the team first.
To have that recognized by the players around the league made the honour especially meaningful.
In many ways, the two awards represented the two sides of a championship organization.
One recognized the decisions required to build and manage the team.
The other recognized the leadership and character within it.
Built to Win - But Won Together
Looking back, it would be easy to tell the 2026 London SMASH story by starting with the championship trophy.
But that wouldn’t tell the real story.
The championship began much earlier.
It began with recruiting Anne-Sophie Courteau.
It continued with the extraordinarily difficult decision to trade Jessica Kawamoto and break apart one of the most successful partnerships in CNPL history.
It continued through draft night.
Through taking a chance on Xavier Richard.
Through experimenting with mixed combinations.
Through releasing Natalie Araya and bringing in Sophia Racine.
Through acquiring Lucas Wong.
Through trading for Ernesto.
Through difficult lineup decisions.
Through asking talented players to sacrifice individual opportunities for the team.
And through a group of players eventually deciding that winning together mattered more than anything individually.
Championship teams aren’t always built through comfortable decisions.
Sometimes the decision that ultimately moves an organization forward is also the one that hurts the most.
Sometimes you have to take a risk when staying exactly where you are would be much easier.
Sometimes you have to trust what you’re building before anyone else can see it.
London SMASH did.
And when the final ball was played in Waterloo, the result was the one thing every decision had been made to pursue.
London SMASH - 2026 CNPL Champions.
Ed Sater - CNPL Owner/Manager of the Year.
Ryan Torresin - CNPL Players’ Choice Award.
A season of difficult decisions.
A season of sacrifice.
A season of trust.
And ultimately, a championship won together.
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