Sie Birdie, Smack Birdie

Name: Ethan Sie

Grade: Senior

Height: 5’8

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

Date of Birth: 03/21/2007

1. How did you get into badminton?

I've played badminton on and off throughout my life, but it was usually outside on the grass with wind blowing in every direction. This changed during the pandemic when I started to take it more seriously, as it was hard to continue with more hands-on sports like Taekwondo. After training at a few clubs, I eventually joined Stuy’s badminton team in my freshman year.

2. What are your goals for this season, both individually and as a team?

This season, our main goal as a team is to redeem ourselves after a bittersweet past few years. After making it to finals for three consecutive seasons, we finally won the city championship in 2023, went undefeated during 2024, then were knocked out in quarterfinals. My biggest goal this season is to build our team up again to help us communicate better on and off the court. Together, we’re looking to make this season a memorable one and reclaim our title.

3. What is your favorite memory on the team?

One of my favorite memories from our 2023 season has to be winning City Championships. After an undefeated regular season, we fought our way back to the finals. I pulled my hamstring during an earlier playoff game, and I struggled through my tie-breaking match, ultimately losing 19-21. But when we won three out of the five games, the feeling was indescribable. The entire team erupted into tears of joy and rushed to encircle our Singles 2. After so many seasons of making it to the finals, we finally brought home a win!

4. Do you have any pre-match rituals or superstitions?

Before each of our games, we choose a different chant. During our most recent game with Hunter, we yelled “3, 2, 1… Thank you Beyoncé!” A few other notable chants are “crying emoji” and “we live, we love, we lie.”

5. What’s one thing you wish people knew about badminton that they don’t already?

There’s a stigma throughout the U.S. that badminton is a backyard sport, when in reality, badminton is the fastest racquet sport and one of the most popular sports internationally, and it sucks that there isn’t as much recognition for the sport in the U.S.

Fun questions:

Funniest Teammate: Johanna Li (manager)

Pump-up Song: Treasure - Bruno Mars

Post-Match Meal: Wingstop

Sports drink of choice: Lemon-Lime gatorade