A total of 18 athletes from Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) qualified to attend the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association provincial badminton championships in Calgary from May 2-4.
BCHS teacher Kevin Geinger, who took over coaching senior badminton this year, said that athletes must qualify for provincials by first going through two rounds of competition and winning either gold or silver.
The first round of competition was conferences, which were held April 10 in Barrhead. A total of 25 players from BCHS netted either silver or gold.
The second round of competition was zone championships, which were held on April 17 in Edmonton.
The 18 athletes who qualified for provincials were Tyler Strydhorst and Nathan Schuring (silver), Taylor Tyschuk and Jeremy DeVries (gold), Kayla Gelderman and Charissa Verheul (silver), Jordan Elgersma and Kayleen Douglas (silver), Mira Agnew and Tristan Hiemstra (gold), Henry Hospers (silver), Maci Reschke (gold), Kanses Whitten (silver), Caleb Brouwer and Ethan Nanninga (gold), Abraham Properzi and Jenelle DeVries (gold), and Lauren Kostiw (silver).
Unfortunately, Lauren Kostiw was unable to attend provincials due to a prior commitment, so the BCHS team that went to Calgary consisted of 17 players.
Geinger explained that provincial championships are a very different beast from zone championships, however.
At provincials, the Barrhead players were up against athletes from Calgary and Edmonton schools who literally beat out hundreds of their schoolmates to qualify for zones.
The zone championships are also at another level, as it is filled with athletes who have spent years playing badminton and have had extensive instruction.
“They play year-round, whereas our students only play for the … end of March and April,” said Geinger.
“Those kids are really, really good players. Not to say that ours aren’t, but they get so much more practice and they’re very well-coached and trained.”
As a result, none of the Barrhead kids medaled at provincials, but they did have some strong results.
For instance, girls’ singles player Maci Reschke was able to qualify for the ‘A’ side of the provincials by winning two of her three games in the round robin.
She wasn’t able to progress past her first game on the ‘A’ side, where she was placed against an extremely skilled older player. But Maci gave her a very close match, Geinger indicated.
“It’s quite hard to qualify for the ‘A’ side. So that was a pretty cool thing,” he said.
Geinger said the boys’ doubles team of Tyler Strydhorst and Nathan Schuring also were able to play for a bronze medal, but lost out in a close match.
While their results weren’t tremendous in terms of win-loss percentage, Geinger said the team represented Barrhead with a ton of class and sportsmanship.
“I was proud to coach this team because … they really represented our school well,” he said.
“We have a lot of kids that if they had the same opportunities and the same coaching and training that a lot of these (Calgary and Edmonton) kids do, we could really, really strive there.”
