SHS badminton season underway

Jenna Campbell

Times Junior Reporter

 

Strathmore High School held its first badminton tournament of the year this past Saturday, March 26. The early day began at eight in the morning with games being played continuously along Brent Boulevard ranging from the SHS and Crowther Memorial Junior High to Wheatland Elementary School.

This year’s SHS badminton team is young and improving, according to head coach Kenton Zandee. There is a lot of talent, but Zandee believes the players are still pretty raw at this point. 

“They are doing all the right things in practise, they’re working hard and are trying to improve,” said Zandee. “Badminton is a game where you have to have all the shots, but you also need to know when to use those shots, and that’s sort of a maturing process. “

Several students ended up doing rather well in the tournament, pulling through with two silvers, one bronze and two fourth place finishes. The silver medals went to Kirby Ruzesky in Intermediate Boys Singles, and Kaitlyn Dougan and Lauren Zandee in Junior Girls Doubles. The bronze medal went to Kaitlyn Dougan in Junior Girls Singles and the two fourth place finishes went to Shaina Kuhn and Max Mckinnon in Intermediate Mixed Doubles and to Kirby Ruzesky and Darian Henry in Intermediate Boys Doubles.

For what is to be expected from the team at the end of the season, Zandee said that provincials seem pretty far away, seeing that, for example, only first place teams in Doubles and Mixed Doubles will get to advance onto provincials. 

“To be honest, I’ve been surprised by a few players, that even in singles – they might advance on to provincials,” he said. “It’s tough to say because we don’t see a lot of our zone competition until we get to zones because some of them do not participate in the tournaments.”

Up next for the SHS team is the fun ‘Feather Tournament’ which is being held at SHS, Saturday, April 2. The tournament consists of mixed matches of all different ages playing against each other. Explaining the tournaments title, the games will be played with birdies that have real feathers.