St. Mary’s threepeats at zones

It was another banner moment for St. Mary’s School as its badminton team earned 3J zone bragging rights at the zone tournament in Lethbridge.

“We had quite a few kids play from Grade 7 to Grade 9,” said St. Mary’s School badminton co-coach Rylan Spenrath, adding the banner won through aggregate points.

“I believe every participant that we had made it to at least the playoffs. We had a considerable amount of points over the next school.”

Heads have been turned in the condensed badminton season for St. Mary’s as people have taken notice since districts along with a huge tournament in Medicine Hat featuring 800 kids and 550 matches.

“We had some of the organizers there asking if we had some sort of club program going on and that was nice to hear,” said Spenrath, adding it is just a school program at St. Mary’s.

“I think it’s just having a little more knowledge of the game and how to develop those skills. We do have a shorter season compared to the bigger schools.  It’s such a skill-heavy sport, but is also one that is easy to play. It’s an approachable game that is easy to pick up and play, but difficult to really advance. We do a lot of work on basic footwork and swings and it’s really paid off. Strategy is so important, because it’s such a skill-heavy game, you can get kids who may be at a disadvantage athletically, but they will be able to beat those more athletic kids with better bird control.”