South Island Secondary Schools Badminton Tournament

By Mike South | Posted: Wednesday June 29, 2022

Over the Matariki long weekend the OBHS 1 badminton team travelled to Christchurch to play in the South Island Secondary School tournament.

The team consisted of Aaryan Alexander (Year 13), Daniel Jeong (Year 11), Joseph Chen (Year 10) and Jayden Lu (Year 9). We were accompanied by Jayden’s father, Mr Ali Lu who was invaluable with his badminton experience. He also was happy to drive the school van there and back. We went with no great expectations, especially with juniors at 3 and 4 but would do our best, and go for the experience.

Leaving on Friday morning, got to Christchurch in good time, and went to our motel. A 6:30am start on the Saturday got us to the Cowles Badminton Stadium by 7:45am for the managers’ meeting.

The team started our first tie at 9am beating Rolleston College 6-0, then at 11:30am we met the Burnside 2 team who we also beat 6-0, with the boys, especially the juniors, playing out of their skins. At 1pm we were drawn against James Hargest High School, last years’ winners. In a close fought match against 4 seniors we went down 2-4 but with many close games, several going to 3 sets.

These results put us through to the semi-finals on the Sunday. We were drawn against the formidable Burnside 1 team consisting of all seniors, and all under 19 rep players. Our boys were feeling a little jaded after the Saturday’s competition and our young players found the going tough against an experienced senior team. We fought hard but went down 1-5, Aaryan winning his top singles game. Burnside 1 went on to win the competition.

This put us into the playoff for 3rd and 4th, where we met Riccarton High School. We played well overcoming them 6-0 which gave us the bronze medal. The boys, myself and Ali were thrilled at our success as we honestly did not think we had a chance to medal. The boys played well above themselves, and we were thrilled at their development especially Joseph and Jayden our juniors. Credit must go to Mr Andrew King for the time he has put into 7am training sessions.

Aaryan was unbelievable throughout the tournament, winning all his singles against all the other schools’ top players, so can take away the title of being the top player in the South Island. He was also a fantastic role model for the team, especially the juniors and was always positive and encouraging at all times, especially when playing doubles with Joseph our number 4 player.

It was a special time with these great boys who really epitomise the school values of excellence, honour, respect, courage and perseverance. They all worked together so well as a team and had fun doing it. (We were the only team to put together our school chant at the start of each tie). We had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

A big thanks to Mr Ali Lu for his encouragement, coaching tips and for driving us.

Mike South (manager)