Badminton’s High School Roots Deep, and It’s Growing Again

You think badminton at the high school level is a relatively new development.

You walk into the Hoover High School gymnasium, take a look at the cardinal red-and-white championship banners hanging on the far wall and notice one that reads “Hoover High School, 1987 San Diego CIF Badminton Champions.” Then you read some others--”1985 Badminton Champions,” “1982-1983 Badminton Champions”. . . all the way back to “1974 Badminton Champions.”

Nobody is sure of badminton’s origin as a high school varsity sport in San Diego, but Jan Jessop, San Diego Section assistant commissioner, says, “The city has traditionally conducted badminton maybe since 1960.”

According to Jessop, badminton became a varsity sport authorized by the San Diego Section in the mid-1970s, and the section conducted championships. But in 1979 or 1980 (again, records are unclear), a rule was implemented stating that more than one conference had to conduct a sport for the section to run championship events. So few schools played badminton that they had been lumped into one conference, and the official championships were dropped.

This year, after another rule change that states that at least 10% of the district’s schools must offer a sport as varsity for it to merit a championship, it’s on again. The team championships are scheduled for May 25-26, the individual for May 18, 19, 20 and 23.

Fun facts about varsity badminton:

1. Badminton is more than just a backyard sport.

Contrary to what many seem to believe, badminton is not just for picnics and family reunions. A total of 18 schools in San Diego County offer badminton as a varsity sport, and most teams have between 20 and 30 players.

On Friday and Saturday, April 22 and 23, the county’s high school badminton players will meet at Serra High School for the Serra Invitational Badminton Tournament. Serra Coach Sue Minnock, the tournament director, has closed off entries at 224 matches. The tournament will run from approximately 3 p.m. Friday until about 7, then continue on Saturday from 8 a.m. until about 10 p.m.

Some question the athletic ability of badminton players (more on this later). Donna Moore, who is in her ninth year as the badminton coach at San Diego High School, disagrees.

“I think the badminton player needs to be quick and smart,” she said. “He needs to be intelligent because there’s a lot of strategy involved: stroke selection, angles, the probability of a shot. You need the same thing other athletes need: mental toughness and a will to win. It’s a very quick game. The kids have to be quick and make quick decisions.”

2. Hoover senior Binh Lam is the elite of San Diego varsity high school badminton players.

Lam is ranked third in the United States among junior badminton players. He was selected by the U.S.A. Badminton Assn. as a representative for the Bimantara World Junior Badminton Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia, last November. He returned this week from the junior nationals at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center, where he lost a semifinal match to Tom Reidy of Manhattan Beach, 15-0, 15-11.

Lam became serious about badminton in 1985 when he took a world history summer school course at San Diego High School. After class, he would walk over to the federal building in Balboa Park, the home of the San Diego Badminton Assn., and remain from noon until 10 p.m. three or four days a week.

“I’d play about five hours a day,” said Lam, who is Chinese. “I’d play and sit, play and sit, play and sit. Before I came to high school, I knew I wanted to win the (San Diego Section) championship.”

He would play badminton with everybody, from the senior players ranging in age from 50 to 75 to kids his own age. Now, after winning the city badminton championship for three consecutive years, Lam still plays all year at the federal building.

“Binh’s rare,” Hoover Coach Debbie Orndoff said. “Not many kids will go out on their own and work as hard as he works. He sacrifices a lot socially to go and train to better himself.”

Lam was introduced to badminton by his brothers, Hi, 24, and Hau, 22, both of whom played at Hoover.

“At first, I didn’t like the sport much,” Lam said. “Like most people, I thought it was a backyard game. But it’s much harder than people know. People think you just hit the birdie back and forth, but world-class players can hit it from anywhere on the court to anywhere they want to.”

Opponents who play Lam learn the hard way.

3. Badminton is for everybody.

Varsity badminton is a co-ed sport. A varsity match consists of five categories: boys’ singles and doubles, girls’ singles and doubles and mixed doubles.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” said Point Loma’s Diane Geary, who is in her second year as a badminton coach. “It’s completely different. I’ve got boys and girls, athletes and non-athletes, Laotian kids, blacks, whites, Hispanics. . . . I’ve got seven or eight subgroups among the different kids.”

There is a large Indochinese influence in high school badminton.

Said Lam: “Most of the Asian friends I hung around with knew about badminton. They don’t play football because they’re not big enough. If you hang around a friend who plays badminton, you’ll probably play badminton. If you hang around a friend who plays football, you’ll probably play football.”

“At first, I thought you just hit the birdie back and forth,” said Kearny senior Talo Phengrasamee, a second-year player who became involved because his first cousin told him it was fun. “But now I think you need more skill than that.”

Susan Kilpatrick, a freshman, joined the Morse team when her physical-education teacher asked if anyone in the class would like to play a varsity sport. Kilpatrick asked what the choices were and decided to try badminton.

“I thought it’d really be fun,” she said. “And I love it. It’s competitive, and it’s a good way to stay in shape and have fun at the same time.”

4. Badminton is fighting an image problem.

It seems that many people consider badminton a sissy sport. But, like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it.

“There’s a lot of ignorance about badminton,” said La Jolla’s Dave Ponsford, who is in his fourth year as a badminton coach and has been an assistant football coach for 13 years. “I get harassed sometimes by the football players. They say, ‘Why don’t you coach a real sport?’ I tell them to come on in and play my No. 15 girl, and when they lose, they’ll see why it’s a legitimate sport.”

Said Bob Dean, Kearny’s first-year coach: “The typical badminton player is very dedicated to being fit. Fitness is the primary goal of every player, because there’s a lot of starting and stopping.”

At Kearny, Dean had 30 to 35 kids turn out for the opening day of practice. That has been whittled down to the 20 now on his roster, partly, he thinks, because of strenuous practices in which the players are put through a series of drills and wind sprints--especially during the first 2 1/2 weeks of the season.

At Serra, Minnock’s practices, which run 2 to 2 1/2 hours, include sprints, distance running, stretching, rope jumping, agility testing, drills to improve strength in the quadriceps and hamstrings and others.

“Americans are still way behind,” Minnock said. “A lot of people see it as a backyard, pitty-pat game. I see it in my school. Different teachers, parents and even kids come in (after seeing a badminton match) and say, ‘Gee whiz, I didn’t know it was like that.’

“They see it as a fluff sport, a piece-of-cake sport that those who are not athletically oriented go out for. I’ve felt bad for the males because I know better and they know better. (Others) will give the guys a hard time, and sometimes it’s difficult to get the guys to come out.

“It would be difficult, for example, to get some guys out who were cut from the baseball team because of people’s perceptions. And baseball would be a good, quality breeding-ground.”

Said Kilpatrick: “Usually, people think it’s a sissy game. But a lot of people who have played it before think it’s really fun.”

Do other people’s perceptions bother her?.

“No,” she said. “I’m proud of it.”

5. Badminton is unique among varsity sports for a variety of reasons.

There are no officials in a varsity badminton match. The players call their own games. If a player is serving illegally, or taking advantage of line calls, the opponent can ask for a service judge. This rarely happens.

Also, the coaches stay out of the way. They can give advice only between games, one minute between the first and second games of the match, five minutes between the second and third.

Badminton is one sport left to the players. And, maybe because of that, there is a unique atmosphere at a match.

“I have some kids who have a lot of potential and are really gung-ho,” Geary said. “Other kids come in to have a good time.”

Said Dean: “The kids don’t have to win when they come in, but by the time they’re seniors, they really want to win.”

There are no junior varsity or freshman teams. As a result, coaches will informally substitute lower-seeded players for higher-seeded players in a match in order to give various players experience. For example, if the No. 1 singles player is still involved in a match when his doubles match his scheduled to begin, a coach might insert someone who wasn’t scheduled to play that day into the lineup.

“I’d say there is a happy medium between intense and casual,” San Diego High’s Moore said. “I’ve seen skill levels increase tremendously, but I also still see a nice sense of camaraderie and sportsmanship. That’s one of the very best things--the kids can be athletes and still be good sports.”