ACAC badminton in trouble
Over the years badminton has consistently been on a down turn in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.
At one point the program had eight schools participating, now it’s down to four and if things don’t pick up it may be dead in a couple of years.
There’s a good chance Mount Royal University will join the CIS in a couple of years. If so that will leave only NAIT, RDC and Concordia and with only three teams the ACAC would likely pull the plug.
“It’s one of those things that’s touch and go,” said RDC head coach Chad Cargill following an ACAC meet at RDC Sunday.
“When I played we had eight teams, but it seems like when schools are looking for more money badminton is the first to go. Now if Mount Royal goes, we’re not sure what will happen. So we want to make the most of this year and next. There’s not much we can do about it, it will come down to what those higher up decide.”
The RDC program is solid, although they are struggling to get out of the basement.
“It’s tough for us as we don’t have any club programs here like they do in Edmonton and Calgary,” said Cargill. “We have to find good athletes and turn them into badminton players.”
But Cargill does see a small light at the end of the tunnel.
“We see a lot of kids playing the sport at the Collicutt Centre, so we hope it stays around,” he said. “Some of our players go over there and play with the kids and there are some very good players in Grades 9, 10 and 11. If the sport is dropped there will be nowhere for those kids to play.”
The RDC team is fourth in the conference, but Cargill believes they have an excellent shot at catching Mount Royal for third.
“This was probably our best weekend in a couple of years,” he said. “We’re battling Mount Royal for bronze and we more than doubled the amount of wins we had against them this weekend. That should give us better seeds in the provincials and national qualifying meet next weekend.”
Mary Smith, who joined the RDC team at Christmas led the team with a third-place finish in the women’s singles.
She beat Ellexis Lathan of Concordia 21-16, 21-12 in the third-place match after losing 14-21, 20-22 to second-seeded Grave Box of Concordia in the semifinals. Earlier Smith downed Samantha Wong of Concordia 21-12, 21-13 and Natalie Neumann of NAIT 21-17, 21-19.
RDC’s Ngan Nguyen placed seventh, beating Anna Hackman of Concordia 21-10, 24-22. Kailey Fauville finished 10th, losing 9-21, 10-21 to Laura Fong of Mount Royal. Kelsey Lank placed 16th.
Smith, also teamed up with Paige Curran to finish fourth in women’s doubles and hooked up with Keelan Stefanik to take 10th in the mixed doubles.
Smith and Curran won their opening match, 21-10, 21-3 over Hailey Coakley and Ashley Dixon of MRU, before losing to top-seeded and gold medalist Sinead Cheah and Sung Yang of NAIT 16-21, 17-21,
The RDC pair then lost 19-21, 16-21 to Box and Lathan in the bronze medal final.
The other RDC women’s doubles team of Fauville and Nguyen placed fifth, beating Coakley and Dixon 21-18, 21-17.
Smith and Stefanik lost 14-21, 16-21 to top-seeded Matt Chan and Laura Fong of MRU in the ninth-place match.
The team of Jeff Cazes and Nguyen were eighth after losing 15-21, 21-15, 12-21 to Jie Sim and Lathan of Concordia. Andrew James and Fauville were 16th.
In men’s singles, RDC’s Brian Smith placed seventh, beating teammate Cazes 21-11, 21-17. Logan Capicio, who just joined the team, took 10th after losing 7-21, 7-21 to Coady Duncan of Concordia while Stefanik was 11th after a 21-14, 23-21 win over Auger.
Smith and Stefanik led the RDC men’s doubles with a fifth-place finish, beating Duncan and Andrew Leblanc 21-16, 18-21, 21-17.
Cazes and James were eighth.
drode@reddeeradvocate.com
COMMENTS
Let's keep comments:
We ask that all participants own their words by logging in with their Facebook account. It's a simple process that will take seconds and helps keep our comments free of trolls, cranks, and “drive-by” commenters.
We reserve the right to remove comments from anyone using screen names, pseudonyms or false identities. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.