Lord of the "Strings"
By: Nilakshana & Jason
On April 11th, 2018, the intermediate badminton team participated in the east qualifiers and finals tournament that was hosted by Military Trail P. S. The teams were coached by Mr. Minor and Mrs. Lee. The Grade 8 team consisted of 10 players: Kesiha, Ting, Kara, Keira, Frankie, Kevin C., Jason, and Nilakshana, and our subs were Ronald and Jully. The Grade 7 team consisted of 9 members: Alice W., Jason S., Yendy, Alice L., Kevin C., Eric, Alex, Kaylee, and the sub was Nicky.
Both our Grade 7 and Grade 8 teams played exceptionally well on the day of the tournament, and showed what accomplishments determination and hard work can bring. We held practices Tuesdays after school and Thursday mornings, training diligently for this competition. On the day of the tournament, most of us had butterflies in our stomachs; we were anxious and nervous about our upcoming games.
The Grade 8s played their first match against Highcastle P. S. Before the match, they did a team cheer with their rackets that went: ‘B-A-N-T-I-N-G, Banting and Best Goldhawks!” They showed great teamwork even before their matches. The team played well, winning 4 out of 5 matches. We slowly built up our confidence as we awaited our coming games.
Next, the team played J.G. Workman P. S. and achieved another victory by winning 4 out of 5 matches as well. We were thrilled to have beaten the first two schools and our nervousness and anxiety slowly vanished. After a long wait time, we went up to play a school named Anson Park P. S. and we also beat this school by a score of 4-1, allowing us to finish first in our pool! We were on fire!
We moved on to the semi-finals, and we ended up facing the host school, Military Trail P. S. They were very used to the courts and lines, as all their practices were in that gymnasium, so we felt intimidated. However, we played with great persistence and this time, we won all five of our matches against this school! We felt very proud and were determined to win the finals.
We were on to the final round against Heritage Park P. S. During the games, spectators had their eyes glued on us; the tension was strong. The matches were extremely difficult for us as the opposing team was a lot more skillful than the other teams. We got destroyed by this team, winning only 1 of 5 matches, but we tried our best and that’s all that mattered. The Grade 8 team ended up winning a blue banner, recognizing us as the Conference Finalists this year.
Both teams played really well, with determination and sportsmanship. The tournament was a great example of April’s character trait of cooperation amongst team members, as we encouraged each other and talked through game plans. We sure had lots of fun and improved a lot from this competition. Badminton is one of those sports that everyone can enjoy. We hope that you give badminton a try!