On Mar. 17 Glacier Peak’s badminton team had their first home game ever since first being recognized as a sport this year. Varsity won 10 out of 11 of their matches, defeating Foster High School’s badminton team. Badminton had been a club up into last year when Title IX required that another girls sport be added, since so many boys get the opportunity to play sports like football. “We were falling short of our Title IX duties, you know, where we have to have equal opportunities in sports. And so the school district put out a survey,” badminton coach Melinda Torre said. “They asked the girls taking the survey, ‘if we offered a new sport, what sport would you want it to be?’ And they gave them a list of all these sports. Like, bowling, and like all these different kinds of sports. What came back, overwhelmingly, was badminton.”

Before the COVID outbreak, badminton had already been a club with around 70 members. After schools returned to being in-person, the club was reformed and only about half the people joined again. When it was opened for tryouts, it was opened as a non-cut sport. This encouraged many people, whether they were experienced or not, to come try out. “I’ve been playing badminton since like elementary school. It’s like the only sport I’m good at. The coaches are really supportive, and teammates are really supportive too, and they are really willing to teach you. It’s been really great. And we’ve won some matches, and that’s been good. We just won a match 21-4.” Said Emily Lin.

Now that it is officially accepted as a sport, people in badminton have the chance to letter for playing. For many players, it is their first year playing badminton. They had the opportunity to learn to be more agile, along with learning different moves such as smashes and drop shots. Since this game was the first official home game, the players had a lot of nerves going into it. “I’m just more nervous today. I’ve always find badminton very fun, and I can do quite well at it. Like the way you have to move left to right, you have smash, drop shots, all those things, are very fun for me. And when you win, of course it’s very fun,” said Anna Kim.