Joey Payeur
With this many people involved, anyone within earshot knew there was going to be one big “racket” raised—or at least plenty of smaller ones.
The Fort Frances Badminton Club’s invitational tournament held over the weekend at Fort Frances High School, the 11th instalment of an event that began in 1999, reached unprecedented levels of success.
A total of 152 participants took part to blow away the tourney’s previous best mark of 115 in 2007.
While 46 players made up the local contingent, the three-day showdown also attracted players from Rainy River, Morson, Kenora, Dryden, Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout, and Marathon.
But none of those communities could hold a candle to the dedication shown by the group from the high school in God’s Lake Narrows First Nation in northern Manitoba.
“The school brought 12 students,” noted tournament organizer Manami Alexander, who also coaches the Muskie senior badminton squad.
“They have no road access in winter, so they flew one-and-a-half hours to Winnipeg and then drove to Fort Frances,” she said.
A whopping 362 matches were held in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles—and there could have been more.
“The last matches of the doubles event [on Saturday] were shortened to one-game matches to 21 points because we were running over time and had to get to our social we booked at Little Beaver Snow Park,” Alexander explained.
After a wearying first two days full of plenty of close games, Alexander said the fashion rules were relaxed for Sunday’s mixed doubles competition.
“This is usually a fun event for everyone, so we took off the dress code and let those teams wear matching clothing, shirts, shorts, etc.,” she remarked. “Some of them matched up in colourful shirts and funny shorts, and enjoyed the games.”
The feeling of community ran strong throughout the tournament, ranging from entire families playing to the volunteer efforts of many local club members for which Alexander was extremely grateful.
“We couldn’t have hosted such a successful tournament without their help,” she stressed. “We received many thank-you words and wonderful feedback from the out-of-town players as they were leaving to head back home and promised to come back next year.”
Alexander also was glad to see so many members of the senior Muskies use the tourney as a tune-up for the major events of the high school season.
The NorWOSSA qualifier, which has been relocated to Fort Frances from its original venue of Atikokan, will take place April 6.
The NorWOSSA championships will be held April 15 in Dryden, followed by the NWOSSAA championships April 22 in Thunder Bay and then the all-Ontarios on May 7-9 in Sudbury.
The top three finishers in each category of last weekend’s tournament were as follows:
Singles
•U-10 boys—1. Andrew Neil (Kenora) 2. Johnny Houlden (Kenora) 3. Tanner Olson (Kenora)
•U-10/U-13 girls—1. Sarah Bagacki (Fort Frances) 2. Colleen Gillespie (Winnipeg) 3. Hayley Arpin (Rainy River)
•U-13 boys—1. Zane Peltz (Winnipeg) 2. Daniel Liew (Winnipeg) 3. Brendan Hill (God’s Lake Narrows)
•U-16 boys—1. Zachary Peltz (Winnipeg) 2. Rory Bagacki (Fort Frances) 3. Ryan Bee (God’s Lake Narrows)
•U-16 girls—1. Laura Goodwin (Winnipeg) 2. Anika Alexander (Fort Frances) 3. Jill Berry (Fort Frances)
•U-19 boys—1. Tim Desjardins (Fort Frances) 2. John McCormack (Fort Frances) 3. Ben Morrisseau (Fort Frances)
•U-19 girls/women’s ‘B’—1. Salene Gan (Winnipeg) 2. Melissa Mason (God’s Lake Narrows) 3. Natalie Jefferson (Sioux Lookout)
•women’s ‘A’—1. Clarissa Koh (Winnipeg) 2. Melissa Liew (Winnipeg) 3. Natalie Desjardins (Thunder Bay)
•men’s ‘A’—1. Owen Kurvits (Marathon) 2. Les Gamble (Thunder Bay) 3. Rob Neil (Kenora)
•men’s ‘B’/‘C’/50-plus—1. Guy Arpin (Rainy River) 2. Don Gillespie (Winnipeg) 3. Al Christiansen (Fort Frances)
Doubles
•U-10 girls/boys—1. Hayley Arpin/ Jackson Arpin (Rainy River) 2. Tyler Argue/Johnny Houlden (Kenora)
•U-13 boys—1. Daniel Liew/Zane Peltz (Winnipeg) 2. Coel Forsyth/Alex Smith (Kenora) 3. Tyrone Okemow/Brendan Hill (God’s Lake Narrows)
•U-13 girls—1. Anika Alexander/Angel McCormack (Fort Frances) 2. Celia Berry/Sarah Bagacki (Fort Frances)
•U-16 boys—1. Kieran Hendrickson/Zachary Peltz (Winnipeg) 2. Paul Brown/Jamie Brown (Winnipeg) 3. William MacDougal/Justin Chan (Winnipeg)
•U-16 girls—1. Kimika Alexander/Chelsea Carlson (Fort Frances) 2. Lindsay Inglis/Laura Goodwin (Winnipeg) 3. Hannah Taylor/Jill Berry (Fort Frances)
•U-19 boys—1. Jerome Captain/Lawrence Okemow (God’s Lake Narrows) 2. Jay Tremonti/Matt Bartlett (Dryden) 3. Jordan Hansen/Regan Arnould (Rainy River)
•U-19 girls/women’s ‘B’—1. Salene Gan/Lillian Lau (Winnipeg) 2. Kristin Moen/Molly Bartlett (Morson)
•men’s ‘B’—1. Scott McKay/Andrew Villafana (Winnipeg) 2. Louis Bujold/Greg Stahn (Fort Frances) 3. Paul Forget (Fort Frances)/Greg Chan (Winnipeg)
•men’s ‘A’—1. Ben Kurvits/Owen Kurvits (Marathon) 2. Shawn Golden/Kelly McGuire (Thunder Bay) 3. Steve Jones/Jeff Clara (Thunder Bay)
•women’s ‘A’—1. (tie) Natalie Desjardins/Karina Olivares (Thunder Bay) and Melissa Liew/Veronica Lau (Winnipeg) 3. Manami Alexander (Fort Frances)/Clarissa Koh (Winnipeg)
Mixed doubles
•U-13—1. Anika Alexander/Taylor Whitehead (Fort Frances) 2. Sarah Bagacki (Fort Frances)/Tyler Neil (Kenora) 3. Francesca Chan/Zane Peltz (Winnipeg)
•U-16—1. Laura Goodwin/Zachary Peltz (Winnipeg) 2. Lillian Lau/Bryan Liew (Winnipeg) 3. Tiffany Anderson/Ryan Bee (God’s Lake Narrows)
•U-19—1. Sara Inglis/Scott McKay (Winnipeg) 2. Chelsea Carlson/Tim Desjardins (Fort Frances) 3. Natalie Jefferson/Stefan Salo (Sioux Lookout)
•‘A’—1. Melissa Liew (Winnipeg)/Rob Neil (Kenora) 2. Diane O’Neil/Steve Jones (Thunder Bay) 3. Kimika Alexander (Fort Frances)/Owen Kurvits (Marathon)
•‘B’/‘C’—1. Salene Gan/Greg Chan (Winnipeg) 2. Bev Arpin/Guy Arpin (Rainy River) 3. Carole MacKintosh (Fort Frances)/Bruce Childs (Thunder Bay)
