After losing its boys’ double team, half of the girls’ double team and the boys’ singles team, the badminton team hopes to acquire new star players this season.
Coming off their winning record going three and five at GMAC, the badminton team held tryouts to bring several new players to the team. Many remain skeptical if these players can fill the roles of their predecessors who won GMAC last year. The new players face hours of practice and much work before they are ready for the season.
“It is not a popular sport, but a lot of people enjoy it and play it outside,” junior Hannah Lutz said. “But it is way different indoors. It is much more high-speed and exciting and I love it.”
Preconceived notions about badminton have plagued the sport at Palmetto, as some do not consider it a sport and consider it nothing but a fluff game. Players hope to change these misconceptions and show that badminton is in fact a difficult sport that requires the same respect administered to any other sports team at Palmetto.
“Many see badminton as a game to be played in the backyard, but it’s not,” senior Daniel Castan said. “It’s a sport.”
Badminton is a fast-paced, full-court racket sport where players shuffle back and forth hitting a shuttlecock, also known as a birdie. The “birdie” is aerodynamic; with feathers on the back, it can be hit back and forth over the net at incredible speeds. The sport is a combination of speed and agility along with calculating the right place to hit the birdie. For new players, mastering the sport may be difficult in a short period of time.
“The hardest thing about badminton is the footwork and the backhand swings,” Lutz said.
Although Coach David Zarco may not be a member of the Palmetto faculty, he has been with the school for more than twenty years. Zarco used to be a part of the badminton team when he attended Palmetto. When Zarco became head coach last year, he helped create a winning team and gave the badminton team an edge it never had before.
“I like the coach. He’s really good, and everyone knows and respects him. He’s really amazing at demonstrating how to play better then any other coach,” Lutz said.
Zarco’s skills will be put to the test with this year’s new team, as most of the players who won GMAC last year graduated and new players arrived without the fundamentals.
“For someone who’s never played the game, they’d think they’re [the new players] really good players, but they just don’t have the fundamentals and have to develop the basics,” Zarco said.
Badminton not only involves the players’ physical abilities, but their mental abilities, too. Players must be able to deceive and read their opponents. The new players consider themselves up to the challenge, but with the upcoming start to the season, some wonder if the players will be able to develop a strong team and refine their techniques before the end of the season.
Winning their first match against Hialeah Gardens on January 28 at Palmetto with a clean sweep of ten to zero, the team hopes to continue their streak.
With the team’s biggest rival, Coral Gables, bent on beating them, the new players must be able to execute when it is time to start playing in tournaments and especially for GMAC which the team did great in last year.
“Half the people that won GMAC left, so I don’t know how we’ll do this year,” Lutz said. “We just have to step up. We have a really good team that has dedicated players who really enjoy the sport.”
