With the past three years of tournaments and APACs stripped away from me, a complete badminton season felt too good to be true. After learning that we’d finally be traveling to Beijing for APAC in a few months, I walked into every practice with unrestrained excitement and anticipation, but also with growing anxiety at the prospect of not performing well enough in my final season.
Now that there were no more vexing COVID restrictions, matches were scheduled one after another. Within a week of practice, we were competing against SAS Puxi and SAS Pudong at Shanghai Cup on home turf. After nearly a year of not training in badminton following last years’ abrupt end to the season, I had even more nerves than usual, though I didn’t want to admit it at the time. On top of that, the majority of Concordia's players were new to the team (if not new to the sport), which didn’t help but add chaos to the event.
After the first day of games, Concordia’s results were not so ideal. We were tied with SASPD for 2nd place with nine games won, and SASPX was in the lead with 12 points. Not many of our players had won their games, although we had managed to win a few sets here and there. With help from an encouraging speech from the coaches and a reminder that every set matters, we celebrated the wins of the day and dusted ourselves off for the second round of Shanghai Cup.
For the second day of the tournament, the team brought energy and stamina both on the court and in the bleachers, cheering loudly for our fellow teammates throughout their matches. As for me, I was finally able to let go of my earlier nerves and focus solely on what was happening within the boundaries of the court. By the time we reached the bracket portion of the tournament, my partner Isaac and I had gone undefeated in all our games thus far. Ironically, we had never successfully played doubles together in the past, but this time around, we barely had any issues with miscommunication.
After we beat our own Mixed 1 team in the semifinals, I knew that Isaac and I would have no problem making it to the end, seeing as we had already beaten our final opponent 2-0 in an earlier match. It was exhilarating to win first place at our first tournament of the season, and I have to shoutout Isaac for encouraging me and covering for all my mistakes throughout the games.
Overall, our boys team won the championship, and we got first for both mixed doubles and boys doubles and runner-up in boys singles. With a championship already under our belt, the team has demonstrated our grit and potential for even better results in the coming season. After this exciting start to the season at Shanghai Cup, I’m even more excited to do more drills, run more laps, listen to more of Coach Carreon’s inspirational speeches, and–hopefully–bring home a banner with this team at the end of the season.
Written by Mamie Yang