Badminton Springs into New Season with Optimism

JIMMY TANG
Staff Writer
As a sport that has suffered numerous cuts due to financial deficits, badminton may be reaching its final days at AHS. One of the most noticeable cuts is the loss of the JV program, meaning that AHS badminton will only be represented by a varsity squad this year.
Unfortunately, the team’s lack of popularity among the student body has made it a low-priority sport. This is evident during games where the players on the team outnumber the audience itself.
“Badminton has been given a bad reputation; basically, people say that it isn’t a sport. We work just as hard as players in any other sport, but we are just not being recognized for it,” said senior Wei Li.
The previous season marked the first time in the school’s history that the team ranked last in the Almont League, which it had won just two years before. With a team comprised mostly of players who are still learning the rules of the sport, the chances of AHS regaining its superior status in competition has sharply declined.
“All of [our] players have the skills to perform well in the sport, but their lack of experience takes away a lot of their potential,” said Head Coach Johnny Le.
On March 10, the team suffered a loss against Pasadena Polytechnic, losing the game by one point with a final score of 10-11. Close games are always hard to recover from, but if the players want to increase their chances of success, then their only option is to quickly recover.
“There were many mistakes both on my part and the part of the players. Overall, I saw a lot of improvements, but there were many evident weaknesses on our team such as consistency and endurance,” said Le.