Birdies Flying High

After Stuyvesant’s girls’ badminton team faced a crushing defeat to Brooklyn Tech in the second round of the 2023 PSAL playoffs, they were faced with a dilemma: how they could bounce back from the season’s woes and adversity. Rather than wallow in defeat, the team decided to pick itself back up and get back to work.

To rise from their defeat, the team started training more rigorously. They practiced almost every day, and some members even trained outside of those sessions. “[We] all train at the same place and take lessons and stuff together, so that creates a lot of good energy between [us]. [We] get familiar with each other,” sophomore singles player Tiffany Chen said. This helps not just to improve players’ skills but also to grow familiarity, as doubles players need to learn how to best feed off of their partners in games.

Practice for the team starts with running laps around the gym, followed by stretches. The gym is then split into three sections, one for those playing exhibition matches, one for doubles, and the third for singles. Another focus is footwork, with exercises such as karaoke that help players develop proper court movement and rotations, something that is vital in badminton. 

Training also helps to prevent injuries. When players are racing up and down the court, they often take heavy steps, which can result in hurting an ankle, tripping and damaging a wrist, or slamming into another player if they fall. Thankfully, none of the players have had any injuries besides soreness from a hard day’s work, though some were occasionally hit by flying birdies. The players train so intensely that they develop forearm disparities. “Whichever the dominant hand is, which they usually play badminton with, that arm is usually bigger than the other one,” sophomore and exhibitionist Wanxin Guo said.

This intense practice resulted in a fantastic comeback season for the team. Everything started flawlessly. The team won the first four games with a perfect score of 5-0, all without dropping a set. However, in their fifth game, they came across their first defeat as Hunter College beat them 4-1. This didn’t slow the team down at all, as they immediately got back to their winning ways, sweeping the next three games 5-0. It was then that they first met Seward Park, a bitter rival throughout the years. The team lost their first game against Seward 4-1, but the game was very close as the team fought for every point. Having experienced their second defeat, the team came back with a vengeance as they went away to Seward and beat them 3-2. This meant that the regular season ended with a record 8-2, giving them the seventh seed in the playoffs. 

The first team they faced in the playoffs was Franklin D. Roosevelt High School, led by their fantastic number-one singles player, junior Alisiya Shchukina. Facing off against her was senior Natalie Keung, Stuy’s number one. Their match was spectacular, ending in a 2-1 win for Stuyvesant and featuring an amazing comeback by Keung in the final set. The rest of the team followed suit, as Stuy ended up winning 5-0. Unfortunately, the team lost their next game to Bronx Science 4-1, ending their playoff hopes. It was a close game, but it was clear that the team was tired from the previous match. 

In addition to practice, many players are motivated by their coach, Hugh Francis, and his love of the game. As Chen said, “Coach Francis is more about enjoying playing than actually winning, and he’s really about boosting our confidence in playing and our abilities.” 

Before he decided to coach the girls’ team, Francis had no experience with competitive badminton. He chose to coach it because badminton had been his favorite unit in physical education. “It was just fun. I don’t think I would’ve stuck with it if I didn’t have such an appreciation for it as a game,” Francis said.

Coach Francis also promotes team bonding activities, such as cheering for team members. “[Cheering] definitely helps when we play, just because when you have people cheering for you, of course, you’re going to feel better about yourself,” Chen said. The players all love badminton, and their coach’s focus on enjoyment allows them to channel their love of the game into winning. Coach Francis also motivates the team with sweet treats. During practices, he often plays against the members and rewards them with chocolate or other sweets for winning. 

The girls’ team often collaborates with the boys’ badminton team. Members of the boys’ team volunteer to teach the beginners or manage. Many boys do a lot of extra training and have won championships. The boys teach the girls’ team positioning and technique. “I don’t know why the boys hustle us so much,” Chen joked about how the boys interact with the girls during footwork drills.

Coach Francis has also instituted a tradition called senior day to celebrate the graduating team members. “We do a thing called mixed doubles, which is one boy, one girl… It doesn’t count for anything; it’s just for fun,” Guo said. 

They randomize each team, regardless of skill level, which means experienced players might end up with or against beginners. “Anything could happen; you just show up and have fun,” Guo said. Some fun activities the team does off the courts are designing the team merch, such as last year’s quarter-zip, team dinners, and getting Coach Francis a gift each year. Last year, they painted him a poster of the team.

For players like Yao and Guo, becoming a starter is the aim of practice going forward. In their next season, the girls hope to get farther in the playoffs and hopefully win against some of the schools that they found most challenging to play against, such as Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science, Hunter, and Seward. “We will overthrow BTech from their reign of terror,” Yao said about the 3-year champions. And, to settle the debate once and for all, all the rumors about badminton players being extremely jacked are 100 percent true.