Another victory: badminton keeps up game with victory against Jefferson

Undefeated thus far in the season, Aragon’s badminton team continued their winning streak in a 14-1 victory in their match against Jefferson High School on Tuesday, April 12. Put simply, “[the match] wasn’t a huge challenge,” says sophomore Nicky Tao.

Several other players on the team shared Tao’s opinion. “[Jefferson] looks like they have more group unity since they are all wearing team shirts, but they’re very inexperienced,” says senior Jasmine Huang.

Huang continues, “We have the experience and training, especially since we have two assistant coaches this year who are both previous players on the Aragon badminton team. Also, we have two players who play outside of school.”

Senior Jonathon Lam says, “Jefferson recently came from the lower Ocean division and usually when a team does that they are considered less experienced, versus our team which was the league champion last year.”

Badminton coach Linda Brown says, “We have a mixture of experienced players and upcoming ones [while] Jefferson graduated many of their players last year, so they’re in a rebuilding cycle.”

Although determined, the Jefferson players were aware of their disadvantage. “Aragon has good technique and knows the court well. They also have many returning players while our team is made up mostly of beginners, with only a few returning veterans,” says Jefferson junior Denise Valencia. “I need to work on preparing mentally just as much as I prepare physically before each match.”

Confirming the beginner disadvantage, Jefferson sophomore Jhaira Monsada says, “I didn’t do that well today because I’m new to badminton, and, also, I was really nervous. It was a struggle but it was also a good experience because I learn from the more experienced players, which helps me improve.”

Jefferson sophomore Jessica Alejandro says, “I need to work on better footwork and movement, and work on communicating with my partner.”

With the victory over Jefferson, the Aragon team now needs to focus on the decreasing number of matches left before the soon approaching PALs. Junior Paul Chen, who won his first match of the season against Jefferson, hopes to prepare for future matches by, “trying to be more precise because I did miss a lot today.”

Lam, who lost the boys doubles says, “[In the next match] I hope to play a lot more aggressively, make sure my shots are in, and prepare more since we just came back from spring break and are a bit out of practice.”

Overall, the team seems well on their way to achieving their main goal, which is to become league champions for the second year in a row. Senior Andrea Chau says, “11 to 12 players graduated last year, but we’re doing really well—better than I expected.”

Lam adds, “The competition is not as fierce this year, so I just hope we stay undefeated.”

With PAL’s approaching quickly, Brown points out that, “[Although overall the team is] kind of young, there is a strong returning senior presence.” Indeed, with senior PAL champions Andrea Chau and Jasmine Huang returning this year, as well as four-year senior varsity players Jonathon Lam, Justin Mao and Lauren Nakasako, the rest of the season looks promising.

“We’re undefeated so far,” says Tao, “we just have to keep it up.”