It's has been a great 2-3 happening and exciting years for the Minnesota Youth Badminton Club. We have organized our first Junior Badminton tournament in the Twin Cities area in 2016 and till date we have successfully organized at least 5 Junior tournaments in the area. Additionally, we have also organized trips to Chicago in 2017 and 2018 to allow junior players, specifically high school players, to get some experience in playing against junior players outside of Minnesota. It's an eye opening experience for our junior players as they get first-hand experience losing to skilled players who are much younger. By younger.... I meant very young... pssstt (just keep it to yourself) .. they are only about 12-13 years old. Despite feeling defeated, our players came to realize and understand the importance of having the right basic skills.
Our exciting activities did not stop there. In June 2018, we have encouraged a couple of our youth players (Benjamin Chua and Zi Hern Wong) to compete in the USA National Junior Badminton Open. As all may have expected, they did not win. However, it has definitely been an eye-opening experience for them. It serves as a motivator for them to train even harder and get even better at their skills.
In December 2018, Benjamin has also participated in the Egret Local Badminton Open and performed better as compared to the National Open. A few weeks ago, our club has brought a group of youth players to participate in the Egret Local Badminton Open. The number of participating players has jumped greatly from one to nine players (Angel, Aiden, Aaron, Yunny, Justin, Benjamin, Hern, Kyra, and Gao). Our players did pretty well given this is the first time (for most of them) they have competed in a more competitive tournament. Benjamin and Hern were the doubles champion in the U-19 age category. Benjamin was able to secure a bronze medal in the U-19 Singles event while Hern was able to secure a bronze medal in the U-19 Mixed Doubles event. Justin Zhou, our youngest player, has also won a bronze medal in the U-11 singles and a gold medal in the U-11 doubles.
Our club is actively seeking for interested youth players with goal to improve their skills in the sports. We currently host some practice sessions with a combination of training and casual play time. Interested players can go to the Places to Play page and look for our club practice sessions. We are also looking for youth players who are interested to become a club member. More information will be provided soon. If you are interested, please drop us an email at mn.badders.17@gmail.com.
Our upcoming events include a trip to Illinois to participate in the 2019 SPBA MW Open Regional Championships (May 25-27, 2019) and potentially the 2019 USA National Junior Badminton Open in Frisco, Texas (June 25 - July 2, 2019).
P/S: Please excuse my poor writing skills. After all, I'm not a professional writer/blogger :D