After decades of student demand and request, Francis Lewis kicked off the fall semester by adding a  boys badminton team. This not only encouraged many boys to try out and show off their skills on the court, but also aroused many questions behind how it all started. Many individuals are unaware of the lengths people had to go through in order to achieve such a wonderful new addition to one of the many sports teams provided.

“Badminton was always a hobby to me. Like, a personal interest and I’m kind of addicted to it,” said Anderson Lin, a senior and captain of the badminton team. “So, after knowing our school will have a badminton team, I knew I wanted to try out.”

“I actually did my coaching internship here back in 2019 right before COVID,” Badminton Coach, Mr. Hurst said. “I asked the boys, ‘Oh, do you guys have a badminton team here? Cause you guys sound like you guys are really good badminton players.’ And they said, ‘We do not.’ And I said, ‘Oh, that’s really interesting, like, how come?’ And they said, ‘Oh, we just don’t have enough funding. You know, other teams get priority.’ So, fast forward, this last school year, I got a call from one of my old coaches saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a badminton program for our school, we’d like you to be the coach,’ and I said yes. So, fortunately, I’m able to do the girls and boys varsity badminton coaching.”

Many students in the boys badminton team have had their own memorable experiences when they first were introduced to the sport. Boys Badminton member, sophomore, Lincoln Wong discusses his early engagement with the sport. 

“The first time I played was like back in second grade,” Wong said. “I saw my aunt playing and I was like, ‘Yo, I kind of wanna try that.’ And then, at my [old] school, there was like a club, and when I joined it, I learned how to play. I played for 5 years, I was on the team but then I stopped because I moved to New York, and after 2 years, I started playing again.”

Going into the team, many players are motivated to achieve the goals they set for themselves, feeling inspired and driven by their love of the sport. 

“I’ve been playing badminton since sophomore year, so almost 2 years now,” Boys Badminton Captain, Ethan Yang stated. “It was at first a hobby, and then it went to being more competitive and then training. I feel like I have the strength to support my school by being in the team. I just want to play more; I want to show proof that I’m a good player in badminton.”

Despite the fact that the boys badminton team has its own fair share of success, it does not mean that there is no room for improvement. 

“Honestly, there’s always room to improve,” Mr. Hurst added. “With every sport and with every athlete. Even as a coach, I try to prove how I can come across to my athletes. But I would say, as a new team, I think we’re really getting there, the potential we have is great, as long as we work together, we reflect on our mistakes, we act on them, we play for every single point, and not waste every single point, I think we could really have the potential to make it to playoffs.”

Having played a few official matches already, the boys badminton team aims to defeat their rival school. Boys Badminton Member, sophomore, Benson Chen discusses his own ambitions.

 “I want to become a single starter either junior, hopefully junior, or senior year. [A single starter] is like a singles match, but it’s written in the PSAL records, so it’s really important,” Chen remarked. 

The boys badminton team has faced various challenges within the season. One of the most inevitable and unfortunate struggles is loss. Although experiencing one of their earlier losses, the Boys Badminton Captain Anderson Lin expresses optimism towards future competitions. 

“Before competitions I was all nervous and scared,” Lin addressed. “Because going against schools like Townsend and Flushing, these strong schools will make the whole team scared. But, after the game, even though we lost, we still knew we tried our best. If we don’t win there’s always a second chance of beating them.”

Wong additionally shares one of his memorable moments thus far. Although it was a close match, Wong managed to achieve a higher score than his opponent in the recent matches.

“My best experience was our last match, it was a sixteen to twelve,” Wong recalled. “My opponent had a sixteen, I had a twelve. At that point, I was like ‘Uh oh, I gotta lock in, I got to make a comeback.’ Then I kept playing, and at the end, I won with like twenty three to twenty one.”

Ever since the boys badminton team faced their rival school—Townsend Harris—in their recent matches, Chen has made it his goal to beat a member of the badminton team at Townsend. 

“My best experience and worst experience was on the same day, it was [September 25th’s] match against Townshend Harris, because I got to play [against] my rival,” Chen asserted. “It’s fun, it’s exciting, like it gets the adrenaline pumping. But, I lost. That’s why I made it my goal to beat him.” 

As a captain of the boys badminton team, one of Yang’s ambitious goals is to prove to others that badminton is a sport that more individuals should show an interest in and to not underestimate the members who choose to participate in. 

“Badminton is a sport that a lot of people undervalue, like they don’t really care about it,” Yang commented. “But, now that I’ve joined the team, I’m going to show them that it’s not as easy as they expected it to be.”

Similarly, Mr. Hurst would like to show Francis Lewis that the students are deserving of the badminton team. Not only does he wish for more recognition for the boys badminton team, but also for the girls badminton team that he also coaches in the spring semester. 

“I want to prove to Francis Lewis that we deserve to have a badminton program,” Mr. Hurst acknowledged. “There’s so many students, even grads who have graduated, that have fought so hard to have a badminton program. I know how it feels to have something that you really want in a school and not have it, so I wanna make sure that me and the boys, and even the girls, because I coach for girls next season, that we prove to Francis Lewis that this is a team that we deserve for the longest time.”