Mitch Calvert
Confidence in the Muskie camp is high going into the NorWOSSA badminton finals today in Dryden thanks, in large part, to the badminton skill development club that runs all winter long here.
Manami and Lawrence Alexander felt the high school badminton season was too short to make a positive impact on student athletes and so the Fort Frances Badminton Club was born in 1996.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
The club currently sports 60 members (40 alone in the Friday night recreational program) and runs practice sessions on Monday and Wednesday nights, but Manami Alexander also hosts two additional practices per week for the high school program during its six-week season.
“The club does a lot for players in Fort,” noted Grade 10 player Chelsea Carlson. “I don’t think we’d be at this level without it as it’s a really key asset.
“Playing for the Muskies is a short season, so they don’t have time to teach you strategy or the basic skills that you need,” she reasoned.
The badminton club focuses purely on skill development and physical fitness, and that additional training has breathed life into a Muskie program that rarely produced OFSAA-capable players prior to its formation.
The work put in by coaches and players alike has paid off in spades over the 13 years since—routinely sending local representatives to the all-Ontarios.
“It’s just getting into the club with Manami that really puts you above everyone else, badminton-wise,” two-time OFSAA rep Tim Desjardins lauded. “This will be my ninth year playing for her.
“She has lots of passion for the sport, and she’ll really drill you,” he laughed.
Alexander’s daughters, Kimika and Anika, both have been in the club from a very early age—with Kimika finally putting her skills to the test at the high school level as a ninth-grader this year.
“As long as I can remember, [I was in the club] because my mom would always take me there when I was little and I’d hit a balloon around,” Kimika recalled.
The road to OFSAA is a long and difficult climb in badminton, with three levels of qualifying required.
Thirteen Muskies survived the first step—the NorWOSSA qualifier at Fort High last Monday—but today is the NorWOSSA finals in Dryden, where only the top two teams in each division will advance to the NWOSSAA showdown a week from today in Thunder Bay.
From there, another top-two finish finally will punch your ticket to the OFSAA championships set for May 7-9 in Sudbury.
Desjardins qualified for the all-Ontarios the last two years with partner Jamie Jensen—winning their first two OFSAA matches last year before being eliminated—but is trying to get back there with Rory Bagacki now his wingman.
“They have been to several out-of-town tournaments to gain high level skills, and to get used to playing as a team and establish team strategies,” Alexander noted.
“I’ve coached him for a couple years, and he’s quick and makes good shots and plays the court pretty well,” Desjardins said of Bagacki. “So far we haven’t lost any games, and the highest points against us was 11, so it’s been good.
“I have high hopes for OFSAA,” Desjardins added. “A lot of the tough teams I played last year graduated [while] I stuck around.”
Kimika Alexander and Carlson, meanwhile, were bumped up to the senior level in order to be eligible for OFSAA. They breezed through the senior girls’ doubles ranks at the qualifier here last week with a 4-0 record.
“I‘ve done the same with many club players in the past when I figured they were ready to compete at the senior level and had a chance to advance to OFSAA,” Manami Alexander explained.
“I moved [Carlson and Kimika] up because they are experienced players who have gone through many tournaments out-of-town and have solid skills for a girls’ doubles team,” she explained.
“We’re pretty equal players; when we play against each other, it’s pretty close games,” Carlson said of Kimika. “So far it’s been good games [in league play].
“Last year for juniors, I went to NWOSSAA in Wawa, but our goal is OFSAA, hopefully,” she remarked.
