The badminton community in Southern California is small but mighty, and the sport is alive and well at San Marino High.
The Titans compete in the six-team Almont League, one of seven leagues in the CIF Southern Section that includes a quartet of freelance teams. It’s a rare coed sport and features boys’ singles and doubles, girls’ singles and doubles, and mixed doubles.
“The season is going great,” San Marino coach Jennifer Ho said. “I have a lot of kids. I feel the kids are really enjoying the season and I’m very, very proud of them.”
A badminton match consists of 21 games, and a game is won following a best-of-three set. Similar to volleyball, the sets go up to 21 points, and a team must win by two points to claim the set.
“I think it’s a really great program. I know badminton isn’t a sport all schools offer,” San Marino junior Leo Feng said. “I think there is a lot of great team spirit, a lot of great players and everyone is helping each other. I think it is a really unique sport because it is a team sport with individual components.”
Continuing their season, the Titans traveled to South Pasadena High to face off against the Tigers on April 22, and it came down to the final set of the final game played. The pivotal tie came in mixed doubles, with San Marino’s No. 1 pairing of Wayde Wang and Makenna Wong battling the South Pasadena No. 2 pairing of Jadon Tse and Kiana Lee.
The hosts won the first set, 21-19, but the Titan pair won the second set, 21-10, to level the game.
In the decisive third set, however, the Tigers duo triumphed, 21-19, to secure the 11-10 South Pasadena victory over San Marino.
The Titans are now 9-3 this season, with their only other two losses coming to powerhouse Arcadia “because the whole CIF couldn’t beat them right now,” Ho said.
In addition to playing mixed doubles, Wang was also the Titan No. 1 singles player. The sophomore beat the No. 1 boys’ player for the Tigers, Kyle Zhan, 21-16 and 21-18. The senior also swept the Tigers’ No. 2 player, Peter Xie, 21-1 and 21-17.
“Self-improvement,” Wang said, was his favorite part of the sport.
Feng was served as the No. 2 Titans boys’ singles. The junior beat Zhan, 21-19 and 21-12. He also overcame Xie, winning the first and third sets to take the point.
The No. 1 Titan girls’ player was Audrey Chang. She is a senior, but will not be done with the sport as she moves on to college.
“I committed to USC and they have a badminton team too,” Chang said. “It’s club.”
Against the Tigers, Chang dropped her first matchup facing Tiger No. 1 Abby Chen, 21-16 and 21-14. Chang then came back later and put away Tiger No. 2 Quincy Sakai, 21-9 and 21-12. Titan girls’ No. 2 Nga Huyng also fell to Chen, with those sets going, 21-15 and 21-17, but beat Sakai, 21-16 and 21-12.
Makenna Wong was also in the mix in girls’ doubles as part of the No. 1 pairing for the Titans alongside Jenny Zheng. The duo won both of their games. They went the distance against the No. 1 Tigers team of Lee and Yi Wings Zhang 23-21, 13-21, 17-21. The Titan No. 1 pair also beat the No. 2 Tiger pairing of Gwen Culbert and Eva Wu, 21-9, 21-9.
“I’ve been on varsity for four years and then I’ve been playing badminton for almost eight or nine years,” Makenna Wong said.
The San Marino girls’ No. 2 duo was Katelyn Li and Jobee Wong. The pair topped Culbert and Wu, 17-21, 21-14, 21-7, but fell to Zhang and Lee, 21-9, 21-9.
“I feel like the badminton community is always really close, and everyone knows everyone, so it is always nice to get to play with other people,” Li said.
The No. 1 boys’ pairing for San Marino was Brian Chen and Nhat Huynh. They dropped their game against their Tiger No. 1 counterparts Anson Fong and Jake Wong, 21-13, 21-23, 21-13. They also lost to the Tigers’ No. 2 pairing of Tse and Joel Kim, 21-16, 22-20, 21-16.
The Titan boys’ No. 2 team was Nicholas Chua and Steven Huang. They were defeated by the Tigers No. 1 pair, 21-18, 21-12 and the Tigers No. 2 pair, 21-9, 21-4.
In addition to the decisive game in mixed doubles, South Pasadena also won the other three games. No. 1 duo of Fong and Chen beat Wang and Makenna Wong, 21-18, 21-19, and Titans No. 2 pairing of Feng and Li, 21-10, 21-5. In addition to the win in the final game of the match, Tse and Lee beat Feng and Li, 21-15, 21-10.
The No. 3 pairings in mixed doubles only face each other, and the game serves as a break point to decide the overall match winner. In that matchup, the Titans pairing of Huynh and Chang beat the Tigers’ Jake Wong and Zhang, 21-14, 21-11.
“I feel like the kids are very committed,” Ho said. “They are so dedicated and loyal. My satisfaction as a coach is to see them enjoy the season, enjoy the group and socializing, and being happy and stress-free enjoying the sport.”
First published in the April 25 issue of the San Marino Tribune
