E-Comm’s badminton team sees rebirth
Badminton is being resurrected at Eastern Commerce and with it comes a large learning curve, says coach Jahanara Kamath.
Arriving from Westview Centennial SS this year the new coach has stirred up interest throughout Eastern’s saintly halls.
“This time we started a little bit late and I wasn’t sure about the response,” Kamath said. “What we needed was better exposure for it to begin.”
After a devastating debut March 9 to Leaside where the team failed to score a single point, one would think the Saints’ morale would hit rock bottom.
On the contrary.
“I found even though we lost as a team overall, but the students had accepted the defeat courageously,” Kamath said. “They have wanted to do well after that.
“They have learned how to strategize for the next game and they are thinking positively.”
A big obstacle the team faced in their match against Riverdale was having enough players for all their games.
Four of eight matches — mixed doubles B, girls single, girls double A and B — were defaulted by the Saints roster. The four matches that did come off turned out as wins for Riverdale.
Hussain M. Ali whose boys single match against Riverdaler Alan Zhu was tightest of the games had the Saint losing 21-17 and 21-18.
Boys doubles A Saad Akbar and Malik Mohammed were downed 21-5, 21-8 by Jason Trinh and Eric Ly while Mohammed Hamden Amer and Chris Chase were held in check by Edward Lam and Anthony Tran in boys doubles B 21-5, 21-4.
The final match, mixed doubles A, featured Malik Anseb and Khanom Sumane losing to Raiders duo Teddy Tong and Stacy Lei 21-6, 21-6.
Riverdale coach Nancy Lum was aware Eastern Commerce was in development mode, so she encouraged her charges to work on their weaknesses.
Kamath said she was proud of her team as they look to win their first set against Forest Hill after the March Break.
“Even though we did not win they came prepared to fight it out and play with whole heart,” Kamath said. “Compared to earlier games, they’ve decided who should go A and who should B — they took the lead in deciding that.”