The Badminton Club has come a long way since its establishment in 2008 by alum Eva Morgun, now a freshman at University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). During the first few years, the club only held competitions within WJ and with Montgomery Blair High School. But last fall, they held the first Montgomery County Public Schools interscholastic badminton tournament with nine other high schools including Montgomery Blair, Richard Montgomery, Churchill, Wootton, Clarksburg and Northwest High Schools, among others.

Sophomore Daniel Leung, a club leader, described his first tournament with the club last year.

“My freshman [year] tournament was small, it was fast and we got right to the point,” said Leung. “It went really smoothly and really quickly.”

Leung said that the single tournament last year was relatively small compared to other badminton competitions he has attended. Leung participated in other tournaments outside of school, in the years since he started playing. Where as other tournaments have hundreds of participants, according to Leung, only 50 people attended WJ’s.

Initially, the school tournament used ranking systems to determine the opponents, but it turned out to be too complicated with the number of schools participating. Instead, the tournaments are bracket-style, where “everybody can play everybody.” According to Leung, it is more exciting in this format.

The games typically go up to either 11 or 21 points, depending on how the player’s preference. But the tournament doesn’t end for the player after just one match.

“You’d just have kids play each other and then once they’ve won or lost they [go] to the side [of the court],”said Leung. “[If they won they] just wait for their next game and if they lost they just can watch or participate in the doubles [tournaments].”

Currently, there is no set date for the next interscholastic tournament, though negotiations are in the process. Tim Lowe, a physical education teacher, also assists in setting up tournaments and supervising practices.

Leung expects that there will be a higher turnout for the next tournament. In addition to the MCPS high schools, Georgetown Preparatory School will also be participating.

While some people may have the misconception that badminton is a passive or easy sport, also called “backyard badminton,” Leung points out that in reality, badminton is a physically rigorous sport.

“It’s actually a pretty tough sport,” he said. “It’s a sport that some people have the skills and some people don’t, but they can develop them.”

While badminton may not be as easy as some people believe it to be, Leung is confident that it is a sport that anybody can play.

“I mean there girls that are five years-old that can beat guys that are 12 or 15 years-old in tournaments,” he said. “Nobody should feel intimidated to join. It’s not too aggressive, of course people make intimidating sounds at each other when they’re playing badminton, but nobody gets injured.”

The Badminton Club also recently set up a Facebook page, aiming to gain support to make badminton a varsity sport in MCPS.

Leung feels optimistic about the future of the club.

“We’re really just trying to hope for the best here,” he said. “Last time we were quite unorganized because it was our first tournament [with] nine schools playing.”

For the upcoming tournament, they plan to enlist the help of many more volunteers to assist the set up and clean up processes.

In the meantime, the club is preparing for the tournament, meeting in the main gym during lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays to play. Although the club hopes to perform well, Leung says that the tournament is open to anyone who wants to compete.

“Even the lowest members of the club who don’t know badminton at all [can play],” he said. “We don’t want to discriminate against people. So this time we want to see if we can accommodate everybody of all  different ranges of skill levels.”

Leung also encourages all students to try badminton at some point. He clears up some misconceptions people may have about the sport. 

“First of all, if people associate badminton with tennis, it’s nothing at all the same,” he said. “It’s not actually the badminton sport you see played in the backyards.”

Freshman Himanshu Weeraman, one of the club’s top players, placed second overall in the fall tournament. He has high praise for the sport, which he has been playing for six years.

“The sport’s smashing,” he said. “As a sport, I think it’s so good, and it’s the second fastest sport in the world.”

Weeraman added that he enjoys this sport because he is from South Asia, and playing badminton gives him a taste of home, where he first learned to play before moving to the U.S. According to Weeraman, badminton is a very popular sport in Asia and thus he learned to play as a child. 

“When I was in sixth grade back in Sri Lanka, I had to choose a sport, and I always loved [badminton] because I am good at it,” he said.

Weeraman was accepted onto his school’s badminton team in sixth grade and has played ever since.

“I was very happy to come to the U.S. and win [second place] in the championships,” he said.

Weeraman encouraged all interested students to come to the the club.

“I have to say, come and see [if you] like it or not,” he said. “I want people to see that badminton is a great, fun sport.”