Mitch Calvert
The final stage for the remaining two senior Muskie badminton teams hoping to take the leap to all-Ontarios hit the court in Thunder Bay today at the NWOSSAA championships.
The senior boys’ duo of Tim Desjardins and Rory Bagacki continued their fine play last Wednesday in Dryden, breezing through the NorWOSSA playoffs with five-straight wins.
They beat Dryden (21-9 and 21-12), Queen Elizabeth (21-13 and 21-10), Beaver Brae (21-16 and 21-10), Atikokan (21-9 and 21-8) and then Cody Jarvis and Matt Godin of Rainy River (21-9 and 21-6) en route to a NWOSSAA berth.
Meanwhile, the girls’ pair of Kimika Alexander and Chelsea Carlson advanced in senior girls’ doubles play. They needed the full three sets to survive a match against Dryden, but breezed through the rest of the competition to also finish at 5-0.
The third Fort High team to advance was the twosome of Hannah Taylor and Jillian Berry in junior girls’ doubles, who also posted a 5-0 record.
But the junior bracket doesn’t have an OFSAA event, so they’ll be looking for a positive finish today to end their badminton schedule.
“I think Jillian and Hannah will probably win their event because they placed third last year at NWOSSAA and this is the second year competing on the junior team,” Muskie coach Manami Alexander noted.
“I’m over 90 percent confident they will bring home the gold medal.”
Alexander also hopes the two senior duos can play at the top of their game and claim their respective berths at the all-Ontarios on May 7-9 in Sudbury.
“They are all in the good position to compete at NWOSSAA because they are placed first in our division,” she noted. “If they were placed second, from my experience, they would have a slim chance to be top two at NWOSSAA competing against four more teams from other divisions.
“I’m confident Tim and Rory will have a good chance to be top two, but Kimika and Chelsea’s team had a few close games last Wednesday,” she added. “So if they face strong teams at NWOSSAA, they will have a hard time, for sure.
“It’s really hard to predict how they do at the next level because I don’t get a chance to see other teams,” Alexander conceded.
Regardless of the outcome for Carlson and Alexander, who are in just Grade 10 and 9, respectively, the future looks very bright for the pair as they still have several more years to compete at the senior level.
“From 17 seasons of coaching experience, I can see who is ready to move up to the senior team as junior players and how far each senior player would go,” said Alexander. “But, of course, not always my [good] bet wins when other teams give me a surprise.
“If they perform the doubles’ strategies they practised this season, to change the typical high school games to advanced doubles and play their games, instead of getting into just drive rallies, they could grab the ticket to OFSAA,” she added.
The Muskie “birders” spent the last two days practising in preparation for Thunder Bay, with Alexander stressing two elements that are to be the keys to success.
“We are working on service and receive skills,” she noted. “When they do well in these skills, that makes a big difference in a game as they get a good start of the rally.
“For doubles event, we’re working on proper return shots [as they] are critical in order to avoid receiving bad attacks from the opponent.”
Muskies who failed to advance from last week’s NorWOSSA showdown in Dryden were Robert Stevens and Cody Heyens (junior boys’ doubles), Dan Murray and Erika Kozar (junior mixed doubles), Shawnee and Ben Morrisseau (senior mixed doubles), and Peter Jensen (senior boys’ singles).
In related news, Jordan Hansen and Catherine Whetzel of Rainy River advanced to NWOSSAA in senior mixed doubles.
