Lucas Punkari
The Fort Frances Badminton Club’s youth program wrapped up its season last Wednesday night at the Fort High gym.
Players took on their fellow clubmates and family members in a series of fun matches before the awards were handed out.
“The entire evening is really a lot of fun,” noted head coach Manami Alexander.
“The children have really been improving throughout the whole season, and to see them now show that to their parents is something that is really nice to see,” she added.
The season, which saw 15 players taking part in the youth ranks, wasn’t without its challenges for the club as it lost the use of Robert Moore School for practices early in the year due to construction.
As well, a few of the senior youth players were unavailable for competitive matches due to the Fort High band’s trip to Edmonton earlier this spring.
Despite that, three performances from the course of the year stood out in Alexander’s mind.
“We sent some players to the Kenora tournaments this year and we basically dominated there, with Anika Alexander and Taylor Whitehead both winning, which showed that our club is quite strong,” Manami Alexander explained.
“Taylor also went to the Junior Nationals for the first time, and he did a really good job there and also got a couple of match victories, which was really nice to see.
“And even though we had a smaller high school team, it was amazing to see both Robert Stevens and Spencer Pearce go to OFSAA this year, especially since they’ve only been playing together as a doubles team for a couple of years now,” Alexander added.
Most valuable awards were handed out to Caleigh Payne (junior), Whitehead (advanced junior), and Pearce (senior) last Wednesday.
Two-time OFSAA qualifier Rory Bagacki also received an outstanding graduate award.
Even though this season has just finished up, Alexander already is thinking about things for the next one, which will get underway just after Labour Day.
“It’s only a three-month break, but some of the players we’ll be going to camps in Winnipeg or Kenora and doing other things to stay in shape for the next season,” Alexander noted.
“For next year, I would really love to see more families come out and play together with one another because badminton is really a fun sport for anyone to come out and play, especially when you have the entire family involved,” she reasoned.
