Valley badminton players stand up and are counted

Rack up another success for the Northeast Kings Badminton Club, which continues to produce talented young players more than capable of holding their own against the best in the province.

NKBC members, under the capable direction of Gary MacDougall and John Vanderweit, compete both regionally and provincially at the club level as well as in NSSAF school competition, where they enjoyed their most recent success.

At NSSAF provincials held last month in Halifax, the NKBC contingent, most of whom are students at Northeast Kings, won the junior and senior team banners and added nine provincial individual titles (out of 15 available).

Some of the higher-profile founding members of the club - Ilena Vanderweit, Brent Barkhouse, Beth Muggah and Elisha Harper - have finished high school and moved on. This year’s NSSAF results show there is still lots of talent left.

Most of the NKEC senior team - Jacobi Vanderweit, Logan Coffill, Mishelle Melvin and Christine Manning, Ian Manning and Blake Brown, Jenny McGinis and Paul Manning - has competed at a high level for several years. Vanderweit, Melvin, Brown, McGinis and the Manning triplets all won medals in both the team and individual competitions.

The future appears bright as well, both for NKEC in particular and the NKBC in general. With Jacobi Vanderweit the only graduating senior, look for the Canning school to dominate school senior badminton again in 2009.

The NKEC junior team (grades 7-8) also stood up in impressive fashion, winning the team competition at provincials and capturing three individual titles: Tineke Vanderweit in girls’ singles, Louis Pearson in boys’ singles and Sarah Bennett and Gillian Tetlow in girls’ doubles.

Along with the remainder of the provincial winning team (Ashlin Warner, Alex Caldwell, Max Beveridge and Melissa Rafuse), NKEC can be expected to compete at a high level for the foreseeable future.

The NKEC intermediate team finished fourth in the province, just out of the medals, but Laura Roy in girls’ singles and Claire MacDougall and Joe Harper in mixed doubles each won provincial individual titles. The remainder of the intermediate contingent - Joe Huyer-Upton, Victoria Brewster and Paige Veinot, Ben Pate and Garrett Whittsit - are all talented as well, though they found themselves in some tough competition at provincials.

That level of competition is likely to continue over the next couple of years. Given the makeup of the NKBC and the dedication of coaches MacDougall and Vanderweit, it should result in the Valley athletes becoming even better players.

Talent and dedication alone don’t win multiple provincial championships. It also takes good coaching and a firm but fair guiding hand and, in MacDougall and Vanderweit, the NKBC certainly has that - in spades. The two are seemingly unconcerned with wins and losses, but their relatively mild demeanor belies a fiery competitive spirit and a hunger for team success. Both coaches have also done their part to produce future badminton players of their own: Vanderweit’s three daughters have all been provincial champions, despite usually “playing up” a division; as has MacDougall’s daughter.

NKEC has had a lot of athletic success in its relatively brief history, winning provincial championships in hockey, soccer, football and table tennis as well as badminton. In the latter sport, the school’s athletes don’t have to take a back seat to anyone.