As soon as the announcement of Francis Lewis High School’s first ever girls’ badminton team was established through the voices behind the speakers, the girls were given the opportunity to make a fresh new addition to their school year by trying out. Many students await for the final decision to be released as there have been an estimated over one hundred and fifty applicants. Every time you ask how many girls are trying out, the number seems to increase each time. The announcement of this team brings Francis Lewis a new amazing future for the lucky students who will be partaking in the team.

“Well, I’m really excited because over 120 girls are actually trying out for the team, so I’m hoping that the skill levels are very high,” Athletic Director Ms. Zacco stated. “This year it’s just a trial year, so there’ll be very few games. It’s just trying to get everybody, you know, acclimated with the sport, but next year I have very high hopes for this team. We do really well with our sports teams and I think badminton will be nothing but amazing.”

Mr. Hurst, the Girls’ Badminton team coach, elaborated upon the process of how the tryouts went. He describes it was “obvious” to decipher between which girls would be moving onto the next portion of the team, and which girls are suitable to be on the team.

“We have two different rounds of tryouts. For the first round of tryouts, it’s going to consist of 150 girls. Since there’s so many girls trying out, we’re just pretty much making sure that they at least get the basics down, and how we’re gonna do that is we’re going to time each set of girls’ for four minutes to see who can score the most points. So keeping it nice and simple, obviously you can tell within the first minute or two if the girl is good enough for the second round of tryouts or if they’re good enough to be on the team.”

With the number of girls trying out for the team, one day was not enough for all of them to try out. The tryouts for this team lasted longer than just three hours of observing, analyzing, and playing. The hard part was finding a facility to tryout in due to the girls’ basketball team’s success, which, Ms. Zacco stated, was not a bad thing.

“So since it’s so many girls, it’s going to be a little chaotic, ” Ms. Zacco clarified. “So we have three days in which they will try out, and the only reason why we’re doing three days is because we have five of the teams that actually use the gym. It’s a little hectic finding gym space. When they find gym space, the coach will have to see the skill level and build off from there. We’ve had to postpone because of girls’ basketball, which is great news for them as they continue to win.”

As there were many tryouts for the team, one of the girls who came out to tryout, Joyce Zheng, shares her experiences trying out for the team from a student’s perspective.

“Trying out for the team, I thought it was fun,” Zheng elaborated. “I got to meet new people and make new friends. What we had to do was to take a little quiz, and give in our forms, after, we were assigned numbers and basically we were grouped up together and then we competed. On the quiz, they basically asked questions regarding the different types of serves or hits in badminton, or questions that ask if it is better to have the opponent move side to side or front and back.”

Furthermore, Mr. Hurst speaks about a story that surrounds the topic of his first impression on Francis Lewis High school having a badminton team. Little did he know, the girls’ badminton team wouldn’t have been established years later.

“Funny story is that I used to be a volunteer coach at Francis Lewis back in 2019, and, you know, when I talked to my teammates about if there’s a badminton team, and they said no, I found that there were so many complaints for years and years that you guys’ haven’t had the chance to have a badminton team,” Mr. Hurst said. “I know there’s a badminton club, but there’s a difference between a badminton club and a team.”

Since the announcement of the girls’ badminton team, it’s known to be popular for weeks as of today. Ms. Zacco discusses her thoughts regarding how it has been so initially well-known, granted it has only been a short amount of time since its establishment.

“We knew it would be popular, because if anyone saw the badminton club in the courtyard, it’s probably the largest club that we have so we were really hopeful that we would get a team for them, and we did, so we’re really grateful,” Ms. Zacco claimed. “So, it’s been popular for over a year. I remember the very first day the kids came to me and asked me if the school could provide a badminton club. I bought rackets, and everything and it’s worked out really well since then.”

Additionally, Zheng elaborated upon some advice she has for the people who have an interest in badminton as well as her own personal situation trying out for the badminton team.

“I advise students to definitely practice your underhand serves because that’s the only serve they allowed you to do during the tryouts,” Zheng shared. “So, you should try it and practice. I actually started playing only recently, only during the summer because in the winter, it’s not very suitable.”

Mr. Hurst conveys his perspective on what he hopes to achieve as current coach of the girls’ badminton team. He’s willing to do whatever he can to improve the students’ badminton abilities and talents as he wishes to make a good impression of the team.

“Since it’s so popular, you know, I also want to make sure we have a good first season and impression to honestly prove to the Francis Lewis community that we deserve a badminton team, and really showcase the skills and talent that every student can offer to the team. Coming from another school, I definitely have heard a lot of great things about certain players at Francis Lewis and I want to make sure their talents and skills are showcased in the best way possible.”