Strathmore High School badminton team off to a good start

 Ashad Mukadam

Times Contributor
 
The Strathmore High School Spartans badminton team is doing well after the first month of its 2013 season.
The team, which is coached by Kenton Zandee, started its season on March 2, following a competitive tryout.
“They went very well, and there was great competition,” Zandee said of the tryouts. “But we had to make cuts because there just weren’t enough spots for everyone.”
Since starting play, the team has been doing really well in each of the three tournaments it has played in so far, led by the juniors who are winning gold medals in many of the disciplines they compete in.
Zandee hopes that the team continues its great performance once play resumes in a tournament being held in Lethbridge when spring break is over.  
“We are gearing up towards zones in Cochrane (at the end of April), and I feel that we have a strong chance to win (them),” he said. “We hope to win (zones, and make it to provincials in Calgary on May 3 and 4).”
As the season has progressed, Zandee has seen an increase in the skill level of the players on the team.
“We are steadily climbing the rankings,” he said. “(The players) have a lot of motivation, and what I see in the practices is that they are trying to do (things) right.”
However, the team has not done anything different this season compared to last season. 
“We haven’t changed any of the strategies,” Zandee said. “It’s just making sure we keep up our motivation (and our progress, and keep having good practices).”
One challenge that Zandee mentioned is that, at the zones at the end of April, his team may face a team at some point that they may not have seen during the regular season, as happened last year at the zones.