High school badminton kicks off season
It’s the shortest and quickest of all high school sports, and after a later-than-usual start, it promises to be even more compact this time around.
Players from all five of the local high schools, in addition to a handful of schools from rural areas took to the court at Peacock on Mar. 27 to kick off the senior high school badminton season. This year, it’ll be three league nights and then straight into the city championships, followed by districts, regionals and provincials all on quick order – what started in the final week of March will be over the second week of May.
“We didn’t have the first league night because there were so many teams at Hoopla (provincial basketball tournament) so it’s going to be shorter, but we’re still expecting some pretty good competition,” said league organizer Jeff Kitts. “It looking pretty good, there are a lot of experienced kids out and that always helps make things move smoothly and keeps the competitive level pretty high.” If the first night of play is any indication, there will be plenty of new faces at the top of their respective divisions after the city championships.
The girls singles division saw Cornerstone’s Rung Thai take first place, reigning junior city champion Meisie Chamberlain of Vanier in second and senior bronze medalist Katie Coulson take third.
Boys singles was won in commanding fashion by Mort- lach’s Micah Simrose, with Central’s Spencer Newans second and Cornerstone’s Joel Goddard third.
In girls doubles, the Peacock team of Allison Billy and Chantal Usher took first place, having finished second at cities a year ago. Central’s Shay Zeigler and Selena Huynh landed second and the junior silver medalists from last year Alexia Aikman and Skylar Ackerman of Peacock finished third.
Reigning city boys doubles champion Liam Kerr of Central was back in first place alongside new partner Carter Voth; Riley Dombowsky and John Ferris of Cornerstone were second and junior gold medalists from 2017 Cooper Cole and Logan Hauser of Vanier took third.
It was a Central sweep in mixed doubles as reigning league champions Brendan and Ashlyn Jesse finished second to teammates Alex Yee and Dream Perez on opening night; Ahalagi Dukuly and Sydney Booth were third. “Especially the first night, it’s pretty balanced,” Kitts said. “Then we’ll see people pull away... we have some experienced boys and girls doubles teams that made it to regionals last year. But it’s hard to say right now because a lot of schools haven’t had a lot of practice time. That’s how the first night seems to work, kind of practice night where you get out on the floor, meet the new opponents and kind of figure out how things are going to go.” The next two league nights will be on Apr. 10 and Apr. 17, followed by the city championships on Apr. 24, districts on Apr. 28, regionals on May 5 and provincials in Wilkie on May 2.