Lucas Punkari
A year after falling short of qualifying for OFSAA, the Muskie senior boys’ badminton duo is hoping for a different outcome this time around.
Robert Stevens and Spencer Pearce are competing at the NWOSSAA playoffs today in Marathon, where a trip to the all-Ontarios on May 12-14 in Aurora is on the line.
“Having gone to NWOSSAA last year, we basically know what to expect this time around,” said Stevens.
“We’re expecting Manitouwadge to be our biggest challenge, and it’ll be the same teams that we saw last year, along with a few of the same players coming through,” noted Pearce.
The Fort High duo qualified for NWOSSAA after going unbeaten at the NorWOSSA playoffs last week in Dryden, which came a week after they had finished second at the NorWOSSA qualifier in Atikokan.
“At the qualifier, we made a lot of unforced errors, and the 13 that we made against Atikokan were way too much,” Stevens stressed.
Once we got to Dryden, though, we played really well in our first couple of games, and we were both quite surprised at how handily we were winning,” he recalled.
“We also definitely got our rotation down, as well, and we were pushing the play to the sides on all of our shots and picked apart the flaws of the other teams,” added Pearce.
Muskie junior badminton coach Brian Church, who was at the NorWOSSA finals in Dryden and will be accompanying the pair to Marathon, also noted a marked improvement in their play last Wednesday.
“As the day went on, they seemed to be getting better and they really had no serious challenges,” he noted.
“Since then, we’ve been working a lot on shot placement and just joining the guys’ skills, just to have them be a little bit better going into the games in Marathon.”
Although the opponents Pearce and Stevens will be facing may be tougher than the ones they’ve squared off against so far this season, Church feels that having gone to NWOSSAA last year will be a big advantage.
“Any time you’re up against a different player than someone you would face on a regular basis, your game seems to improve drastically as you have to step things up, and you’ll be better off in the long-term,” he explained.
“With the guys having gone to NWOSSAA last year, they should more confident going into it than maybe someone who is going for the first time that has butterflies in their stomach,” he reasoned.
“When you’re nervous, you tend to start missing shots and not be as consistent out there, and having that experience definitely helps prevent that from happening,” Church stressed.
