Doubles Championship Turns Into a Soap Opera as Late Entry Wins

An unseeded, late entry from Long Beach Wilson won the Southern Section mixed doubles championships Thursday night at the Orange County Badminton Club. They earned it by defeating top-seeded Jay Bao and Alicia King from Diamond Bar, 18-14, 15-1.

But what’s funny to some, disturbing to others, is the route the team of Hoang Bui and Sophy Chung took to the finals.

Bui and Chung faced teammates Sara Vang and and Lee Cheng in the Moore League semifinals. Bui, infatuated with Vang, made her a deal: He throws the match, she goes to prom with him.

But finishing third in league, Bui and Chung are left out of the section championships, while Vang and Cheng go in as the league’s top entry. Late Thursday afternoon, Wilson notified the section that Cheng was ill and cannot play. Bui and Chung took the spot and win the section title.

“Yeah, it’s true,” said Bui, a junior.

Amusing to some, but longtime badminton coaches were unhappy when hearing the story.

Garden Grove Coach Vicki Toutz, who is retiring at the end of this season after 30 years of coaching, was not upset that they won the title, but that Wilson Coach Linh Luu would allow this to take place.

“It’s very unsettling that a coach would let a player do that,” Toutz said. “We are supposed to be here to teach are kids ethics and morals.”

Alhambra Keppel Coach Harold George, who has led his team to seven section titles in the last eight years, was also unhappy.

“[Luu] should have defaulted his team as soon as he knew there was something going on,” George said.

When it is all said and done, though, no Southern Section rules were broken, unless it is proved that Cheng was not really ill. Since it happened in the league finals, it is the Moore League’s responsibility.

No Orange County team advanced past the quarterfinals.