This Sudbury Sports Guy: NOSSA Badminton pits natural athleticism against sport-specific knowledge
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Ecole Secondaire Macdonald-Cartier badminton player Yanic Venne prepares to return a shot as he and mixed doubles partner Danika Tremblay against the Manitoulin Secondary School during NOSSA Novice badminton promotion at St Benedict Catholic Secondary School in – Cash Duchene-Milne and Tessa Merrylees compete in tandem in Sudbury, Ontario on Friday April 22, 2022. Photo by Ben Leeson/The Sudbury Star/Postmedia Network
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In local high school badminton circles, it’s the game within the game.
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A sport that tends to attract the occasional competitor in very large numbers, the truth is that in singles play, when you’re playing against club-hardened badminton fans, natural athleticism will generally only get you so far.
Exhibit A, on reverse: Gillian Obradovich – NOSSA Senior Girls Singles Champion, the 11th grade Lockerby Composite talent, has been a mainstay of Sudbury Junior Badminton Club since her primary school days, battle-hardened against those across the province for whom it The court sport is the be-all and end-all
This isn’t quite the same landscape in the world of mixed doubles where countless multisport athletes have thrived over the years.
Exhibit B: Farrah Farstad and Blake Rosener – NOSSA Senior Mixed Doubles Champions, the St. Charles College tandem is far better known for its achievements in hockey and football respectively, representative of the many who draw on their transferrable skills from other athletic endeavors, which allow them to often excel in this particular league
“In mixed doubles I’m up front so the birdies come at me a lot quicker, right in front of my face,” said Farstad, who has been a goaltender with the Sudbury Lady Wolves program for almost a full decade. “As a goalkeeper, my reflexes help me a lot.”
The irony is that in one of only three Sudbury-only NOSSA finals that day (of the 15 that were played) Farstad’s counterpart in the gold medal match was Ella Kissner, also a longtime puck stopper who played with Macdonald worked together -Cartier schoolmate Zander Lauzon.
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“Playing badminton helps me so much with my footwork in football,” added Rosener, who has been a regular with Impact teams at Greater Sudbury Soccer Club since well before he was a teenager.
“The bigger steps here are a bit different. In football I just run everywhere, but here you jump a lot more.”
Although Rosener trained weekly with SJBC at St. Benedict for a couple of years, he and Farstad got together just weeks before the city championships to recapture some of the chemistry the two enjoyed in their 8th grade days at St. Charles.
While it was enough to propel them to the top of the podium on Saturday in Sudbury, the next step will be more difficult when they travel to OFSAA May 5-7, when the province’s best meet at Pain Court.
“I know the northern competitors because I used to play club, so I played against them – but OFSAA goes crazy,” Rosener said.
Thankfully, he knows his partner always has his back—or maybe not.
“I just like having a partner,” Farstad said, raising the issue of doubles instead of the alternative.
“In singles it would always be my fault, but that way I can blame Blake a little bit,” added the Grade 11 senior with a smile and laugh.
In contrast, singles play is exactly where Gillian Obradovich is craving, a definite favorite heading into the northern playdowns but with an environment that’s a little out of the ordinary.
“When I came in, I was definitely nervous,” said the 17-year-old veteran of a solid Vikings team. “We haven’t played for a long time because of Covid. I figured I’d try to play one game at a time and just do my best.
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Their best was indeed enough as Obradovich defeated North Bay’s Eryn Long (ESP Nipissing Ouest) in the final, benefiting from the work that has been kept up throughout the pandemic.
“I’ve gotten a lot stronger over the years when it comes to moving the bird around — and my footwork has definitely improved,” she said. “When I compare myself to other high school players, I think my strategy is stronger than most of them.”
However, coming up against a more unconventional player with limited badminton strategic skills also presents a whole host of other challenges.
“That’s something I notice a lot in my high school games,” Obradovich suggested. “Sometimes I can play badly just because I’m always predicting or trying to predict where the shot is going to go.
“It’s not always what I expect.”
Making her first appearance at OFSAA, the only local athlete to have won individual competitions in any of the three age divisions, she senses that the All Ontario tournament may have a slightly different feel to some of the events that may have preceded the arrival of COVID took place -19.
“I really just wanted to make it to OFSAA because I’ve missed it for the past two years; I’m looking forward to playing and having fun,” she said. “Honestly, everyone wants to play again because we’ve missed so much time. I think I’m pretty prepared for what I’m going to meet at OFSAA – I think.”
While the junior division produced no Sudbury gold medalists, the novices provided two entries, both in doubles, as the College Notre Dame tandem of Theo Lefebvre and Elliott McDonald defeated Horizon pair Ryan Noel and Caleb Ross during the Grade 9 mixed doubles also included an all SDSSAA final as Brayden Bertrand/Audrey Dupuis (Sacre Coeur) outlasted Yanic Venne/Danika Tremblay (ESMC).
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The three runners-up already mentioned were joined by Will Mackey (Novice Boys Singles – Lasalle), Nathaniel Couture/Nolan Kuhlberg (Junior Boys Doubles – Lo-Ellen) and Chloee Beaulieu/Ashley Turcotte (Junior Girls Doubles – Riviere des Francais). Local bronze medalists included Matteo Rocca (Senior Boys Singles – Lo-Ellen), Brian Fink/Jacob Lamothe (Senior Boys Doubles – ESMC), Isabella Jonas (Junior Girls Singles – Sacre-Coeur), Anthony Bertrand/Julien Jobin ( Junior Doubles – Bishop Carter), Abby Managhan/Kate Rolston (Junior Girls Doubles – Lockerby) and Bailey Raymond (Novice Girls Singles – Sacre-Coeur).
Randy Pascal is that Sudbury Sports Guy. Read his columns The Sudbury Star regularly.
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