Mitch Calvert
It was a banner day for the Fort High badminton team at the NWOSSAA finals yesterday in Thunder Bay, with two pairs qualifying for the OFSAA championship set for Sudbury May 7-9.
In the senior boys’ division, the duo of Rory Bagacki and Tim Desjardins kept their perfect season in tact, sweeping through their bracket with a 5-0 record.
Desjardins qualified the last two seasons alongside Jamie Jensen (now a coach with the program), and will be looking to claim his first all-Ontarios medal in his last go at it.
“Tim and Rory looked very strong,” coach Manami Alexander enthused. “They were confident they were going for gold and they did, and all the coaches were very happy with their performance.”
In senior girls’ doubles action, the pair of Chelsea Carlson and Kimika Alexander finished second with a 4-1 record, dropping one match to a strong team from Wawa—but were able to grab the second berth and punch their tickets to Sudbury.
“They really kept their level of play up, and played above their level in a good match against Wawa,” coach Alexander said. “I’ve never seen them play so hard with a lot of different dimensions, and it was good to see.”
In junior girls’ doubles, the duo of Jillian Berry and Hannah Taylor struck gold thanks to an unblemished 5-0 record—but OFSAA doesn’t include junior teams in its competition, so the promising pair will have to wait until next season for their chance at a provincial medal.
“They played with lots of energy, and the whole team cheered for each other and it made a difference,” Alexander enthused.
