The boys varsity badminton team’s fall season ended earlier this month with a 4-1 loss to Franklin D. Roosevelt High School in the first round of the playoffs. The team finished the regular season at third place in the Queens Division with an 8-2 record.
“The overall performance of the team is, I would say, outstanding because of their work ethic,” said head coach Matt Lemanczyk. “Whether they’re in the weight room, the hallway, or on the gym floor, they’re putting in the work and any time you put in the work, you’ll find results.”
The team’s first season match ended in a 5-0 win over Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education High School, led by senior captain Rory Xiao, junior captain Bhuri Limlertvate, seniors Jason He and Joshua Norman, junior Justin Chen, and sophomores Connor Chen and Louis Cheng. Six of the team’s eight wins this season were 5-0 victories.
“We had ups and downs,” said Louis. “But we played through it. We never gave up.”
Bhuri said, “The team’s improved last year by working more on certain shots. We’re doing more drills, more conditioning, and more physical qualities of ourselves, more than just how we play in a match.”
Members of the team said they saw challenging matches as opportunities.
“Our match against [Flushing High School] was pretty challenging,” said Jason. “We didn’t win that match, but it was a learning lesson for all of us.”
“My favorite match was probably against Flushing Campus because they have really good players, and it’s a really good chance to improve our gameplay,” Jason said.
Coach Lemanczyk praised the team’s willingness to seek opportunities for growth. “I think one of the bigger things that they do is they find areas that they need to improve on, and then they work on it,” he said. “They drill it during practice time to strengthen the areas that they need improvement, but just as important, they continue to strengthen areas that they’re strong in, to keep that as one of their stronger assets.”
The team also works to build team spirit outside of school.
“We have team bonding most of the time, after almost every game,” said Louis. “After every game we go out to get food, and our overall chemistry is pretty good together as well.”
“[We have] great chemistry with one another,” said Bhuri.
Though the team did not make it far in this year’s playoffs, it has continued its streak of making it to the playoffs every year since the return to regular competition after the pandemic. Twice in the past five years, the team won the city championship.
