Boys Badminton Look Forward to Post-Season

With a 5-0 win over Martin Luther King Jr. High School (MLK), Stuyvesant’s boys’ badminton team continued its dominant three game stretch. The team won a combined 10-0 in the previous two games against High School of Fashion Industries and Dr. Susan S. Mckinney School of Art.

Led by a strong senior class, the team has been lights-out this season, currently second in its division at 7-2 behind Brooklyn Technical High School, who is at 9-0. The entire starting lineup, except for the second doubles team, is made up of seniors who have been on the team for at least a year and already know the drill. They understand the game and have learned the right mindset in order to be successful.

“[We] initially just try to go out there and do our best to win both doubles and win in the singles matches,” senior Alexander Lu said. By taking each game match by match, the team doesn’t get caught up in the overall picture and only focuses on each moment individually. This mindset allows the players to exert all their energy on the current play and to not worry about past matches.

On the sidelines before the MLK match, senior and captain Steve Wong stood firm and tall, using his racquet to practice his stroke. This purpose was twofold: to make sure he was ready for the game and also to gain a competitive edge by scaring his opponents. “Many of the opposing players were inexperienced and [...] I tried instilling a sense of uneasiness into those inexperienced players by showing them how aggressive and prepared I was,” Wong said.

Stepping into his doubles match against MLK with Lu, Wong winded up his racquet, ricocheting the shuttlecock over the net as the opposing players failed to answer. Evidently, this scare tactic worked, as he and Lu won their first set 21-0 and came out victorious in the remaining sets, gaining a point for Stuyvesant.

Coach Marvin Autry believes the experience of the seniors has played a big role in the team’s success. “Our starters know where they stand and are focused and poised because they know themselves better than anyone else,” Autry said. Most of the players independently prepare on the side before their actual match and at practice to understand what they need to improve upon or know what skills they have confidence in.

This team believes it can succeed this post-season. The past three years have all led to second-round exits in the playoffs, so hopefully this can be the year the team breaks through.