NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Rylan Jackson of the Eagle Butte Talons badminton team goes through a warmup at practice Thursday ahead of the South Zone finals Friday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Eagle Butte Talons are well represented at the Badminton South zones today.
The Talons have 15 kids competing at the junior, intermediate and senior ranks at the South zone finals in Lethbridge after each finished either first or placing at the city championships April 13.
Eagle Butte head coach Sheldon Wihnan said Thursday he’d had 16 athletes going but one has a previous commitment and can’t make it. Wihnan said having that many Talons heading to zones makes him proud as a coach.
“They’re not only playing well for themselves, but they’re representatives of the high school, so it’s always good when we can have that many players representing our school,” Wihnan said.
After having two years off of badminton competitions due to COVID-19, Wihnan said it’s great to be back to normal competition.
“The past couple of years, the only thing we could really do is just play amongst ourselves,” Wihnan said. “It’s nice to get up to tournaments this year, just to have some other competition from other schools.”
Besides the travel down Highway 3, Wihnan says there is a big jump from cities to zones which all athletes have to combat.
“Students that do really well at cities, sometimes they’ll go to zones and they may meet up with athletes that they haven’t seen at tournaments and sometimes that’s pretty shocking to them,” Wihnan said. “We hope they’re going to be able to compete, and when they do get to that zone competition, earning that right to get there, they deserve to be there.”
The Talons will be joined at zones by Hat High Hawks and McCoy Colts, who also qualified at the city championships hosted at Hat High. The Hawks have nine duos competing in the doubles divisions as well as single competitors. The Colts are represented well in the singles competitions.
On top of zones medals on the line, any of the Talons, Hawks and Colts who win at zones will represent their schools at provincials next week in the Hat. The city will host the ASSA provincials at Crescent Heights, Hat High and the South Ridge YMCA/Notre Dame Academy next Friday and Saturday.
Wihnan said he can’t remember the last time Medicine Hat hosted badminton provincials but he’s excited for the opportunity for the kids to play in front of their friends and family.
“We’re excited that Medicine Hat’s hosting, there’s nothing greater than students being able to advance from zones to provincials right in this area,” Wihnan said.
