“People always joke, ‘Oh, try out for the badminton team.’ Yeah. You need to come see what the badminton team does,” said physical education teacher and head badminton coach of nine years Linda Brown. “You don’t just sit and hit the birdie. They train hard, and they hit hard.”
Though many people may think of badminton as just a backyard or P.E. sport, Aragon’s badminton team has been fiercely competitive in recent years. Before Brown took over as head coach, the team’s coach was Arjuna Manning-Laisne. Before that, athletic director Steve Sell coached for a few years.
Several team veterans believe the spring 2015 season was a high point for Aragon’s badminton team, including senior Jeremy Liu.
“When I was a freshman, there were many good players who were nationally ranked.” said Liu. “Ever since then, as the years have been going on, they have left and our school has not been performing as well.”
While Liu and others view 2015 as the peak season, Brown notes that the team continues to do well in the Peninsula Athletic League.
“We are always in the top three,” she said. “Two years ago we sent people to NorCals, which is just a step away from states.”
Senior Michelle Zhang agreed that the skill level of the team was best in her freshman year when there were many players who had received outside badminton training.
“There were a lot of people who played outside, like club badminton, and we did really well in the league games,” she said. Zhang herself was trained and competed with Affinity Badminton Club beginning in 2008 before coming to Aragon.
“I played outside of school for a long time before,” she said.
Her sister, Candy Zhang, graduated in 2015 after her own impressive badminton career.
“I was undefeated in singles during league games all four years at Aragon and had four PAL titles in girls singles and three [Central Coast Section] titles,” Candy Zhang said. Candy Zhang won Senior Athlete of the Year in 2015.
Candy Zhang said that in her earlier years, the team was less intense.
“For the most part, the people on the team were a lot of the athletic and coordinated people that tried badminton during P.E.,” she said. “Club training definitely brought up the skill level of the Aragon team. For me personally, club training was by far more intense than Aragon practices.”
Current assistant coach Erwin Sarmiento also played on the 2015 team. Sarmiento played singles beginning in his junior year after being trained at the Bay Badminton Center, and became ranked No. 21 nationally in his division in his senior year. He continued playing badminton after graduating from Aragon in 2016.
“I used to play for the U.S. national team, and now I play for the Guatemalan national team,” he said. He returned to Aragon to coach the team last year.
“I think compared to my years and now, it’s completely different,” said Sarmiento. “I feel like now we have more drills and better ways for them to practice.” During practice, Sarmiento leads warm-ups, running drills, and workouts.
Brown agrees that an increase in players getting training from badminton clubs outside of school has greatly improved the skill level of the Aragon team.
“You now have, just like in other sports like volleyball, kids who are training year round,” she said. “The level of play has increased dramatically.”
Clubs in the Bay Area such Affinity Badminton Club, Bay Badminton Center, and Bintang Badminton offer camps, lessons, and competitive teams for children as young as six years old. As these clubs have gained popularity in recent years, the level of high school play in the Bay Area has gained intensity.
“Within the last five years, the number of kids who are training at young ages, we are talking like elementary age, has totally increased,” said Brown. “Which means as they get older, they are just getting better and better.”
Incoming freshmen who have played club badminton previously come into Aragon’s team ready to compete.
“I took lessons since I was nine,” said freshman Liam Xu. “Conditioning is tough. We are definitely getting better.”
As competitive badminton gains popularity in America, specifically in the Bay Area, Aragon’s badminton team may continue to see an increase in the level of competition. Since its beginnings at Aragon, badminton has increased in skill level, and has subsequently gained respect from the community as a competitive physical and mental sport.
