Flocks of badminton birdies flying high at opening TVRA junior mini-meet

Woodstock CI’s Jillian Trepanier serves during TVRA junior badminton mini-meet action Tuesday, April 1st at Woodstock Huron Park. (Jeff Tribe Photo)

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

Flocks of birdies were flying high at the opening Thames Valley Regional Athletics South East junior badminton mini-meet Tuesday, April 1st at Woodstock Huron Park.

“Everyone seems to have more teams,” said Huron Park co-coach and mini-meet co-convenor Sara Tomlinson. “It’s definitely an up-and-coming sport for sure.”

She and compatriot Karen Lam were extremely busy flight controllers inside a full gym of active courts, boys’ and girls’ doubles teams from the host school, Woodstock CI, St. Mary’s and College Avenue and Ingersoll DCI (IDCI) contesting a steady flow of 15-point matches.

“Today was good crazy,” smiled Lam.

“Once we got it rolling,” added Tomlinson.

“Good teamwork,” Lam rejoined. “We made it work.”

Factors, including elementary school badminton programs, appear to have contributed to an upswing in junior high school numbers playing out in Huron Park’s main gym and beyond.

“It seems to be,” agreed Tomlinson. “We had a really great turnout for tryouts.”

High school badminton is a comparatively short season, an opening mini-meet of boys’ and girls’ doubles matches; singles and mixed doubles taking to the court the following week at Lord Dorchester. The TVRA East (Oxford County plus Dorchester) meet for all four divisions is scheduled for Tuesday, April 15th at IDCI, followed by TVRA South East Tuesday, April 22nd at St. Thomas Parkside. The top teams from there qualify for Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association (WOSSAA) championships which represent the pinnacle of the junior season.

Each school can send three teams per division to TVRA, Huron Park fielding more than that number at this point.

“It’s great a lot of kids want to come out to play,” said Tomlinson.

The comparative quickness of the season allows student-athletes to cram another competitive outlet into what may already be a busy schedule.

“More sports,” smiled WCI’s Jillian Trepanier, coming off a girls’ hockey season to join ranks with volleyballer Avery Molinaro before both head onward to track and field.

“It’s fun to work together,” said Molinaro, whose badminton goals include ‘having fun.’ “And we would like to go to WOSSAA if we can make it.”

“That would be nice,” Trepanier agreed.

Similarly, Springbank Public School alumni Charles Thompson and Fyfer MacDonald teamed up before the former concentrated on Huron Park soccer, the latter the Huskies baseball team.

“It’s a sport we can play together,” Thompson explained.

They finished the day with a perfect 4-0 record, as well as identifying areas they’d like to work on, including better communication.

“We sort of have to aim our shots a bit better,” Thompson added.

“Get the other team running a bit more,” MacDonald contributed.

St. Mary’s Warriors Matthew Polidori and Travis Martens also had a solid outing, going 3-1 on their day.

“We did all right,” assessed Martens of a Grade 10 tandem which narrowly missed qualifying for WOSSAA last year, experience establishing that tournament as this season’s goal.

“Got to play more as a team,” said Martens of lessons learned at Huron Park.

“If it’s in between us, who’s going to get it?” added Polidori. “Chemistry, I guess.”

As the day’s matches concluded, some players continued to hang around, Thompson and MacDonald among those splitting up for a little impromptu singles action. Although happy to have successfully completed a busy day, their enthusiasm, like having more than three teams per division, was a good problem to have, said Tomlinson.

“You’ve got to chase them out of here at the end of the day,” she concluded with a smile. “It’s good to see.”