Lucas Punkari
Even though he was competing against players older than him, Taylor Whitehead wasn’t intimidated in the least at his home gym last Thursday.
The Grade 9 student at Fort High went a perfect 12-0 in senior boys’ badminton play during a NorWOSSA exhibition tournament here.
“It was a pretty good day, I guess,” Whitehead smiled.
“Competing at an event like this shows what the competition is like at the high school level, and you learn a bit about the strategy that everybody uses out there,” he explained.
“I’m just hoping that I can make my shots more consistently going forward.”
While Whitehead’s performance stood out, the day as a whole was a very strong one for the black-and-gold as all six Muskie players showed improvement.
“I think the day went really well,” said head coach Tracy Rob.
“You [could] tell right from the start that they were nervous in their first few games,” she noted.
“But as the day went on, they were getting more confident in their shots and their games started to turn around.
“I think the opportunity to see a lot of different players was big, as well, as they got to see how other players approach that game and learn from that,” Rob added.
Another impressive showing during Thursday’s tournament came from Muskie junior boys’ singles competitor Jeremy Shypit, who was a perfect 5-0 in the afternoon to finish the day with a 7-2 record.
“You could see the improvement in his play during the afternoon, especially with his strategy as he made a lot of big strides in his strategy,” Rob said.
Sage Smith went 2-8 in the junior boys’ singles event while Kim Gooselin was 0-4 for in junior girls’ singles play. But both showed steady improvement during the day.
The Muskies also had a junior boys’ doubles team in action last Thursday, with Chase Badiuk and Cameron Jolicoeur teaming up to go 2-2.
“They had only been together for a couple of days heading into this event, so it was kind of a trial by fire for them,” Rob explained.
“But they worked well together all day, and they starting to learn their strategies as a team,” she lauded.
The black-and-gold are on the road today for their next tournament, competing in Atikokan for a NorWOSSA qualifier ahead of next Wednesday’s league championships in Kenora.
“All six players that played here will be in that event, and we are also hoping to have a junior girls’ doubles team taking part,” Rob said.
“One of the biggest things we’ve been working on is to make sure that things are a little less sloppy and to also tighten up a few aspects of everyone’s game,” she added.
“And then after that, we can focus more on strategy.”
