Finishing last year’s season with an outstanding final record of 12-2, the badminton team has already set high expectations for this upcoming year.

Tryouts for the team kicked off August 11th with a great turnout of fifty new players, and the team could not have been more thrilled.

“We’re definitely going to have to make cuts this year,” badminton coach, Lerina Johnson, shared. “It’s a good problem to have but we’re going to cut some decent players that I would have begged to have kept years ago.”

Coach Johnson then shared what she looks for in the new athletes in order to recruit a state winning team, “if they can already see that there’s a hole in the court and can see that’s the spot we want them to hit that’s awesome because that’s hard to teach the strategy part of the game,” she replies confidently.

With badminton now on the rise other athletes sparked interest in the sport and were eager to give it a try. Therefore many of these new recruits lacked any badminton experience but proved to be athletes in other sports such as softball and tennis.

“Out of all sports I think softball and tennis is very easy to convert. Not only will they help us but we’ll help them in their reaction time and their footwork,” coach Johnson comments. This year the team has set their standards very high.

“We’re hoping to finish in the top four and that would allow us to host a post season match here at Perry,” Coach Johnson proudly states.

Last year the team placed seventh in the power rankings and continues to climb their way up to state championships.

“I have a really good chance at winning state for singles,” senior Jenna Reynolds said. “That would be my goal, to get Perry a state championship.” The players agree that with lots of practice and plenty mental toughness, their goals can be met. The team proudly confirms they has the talent needed to take them up to the top. So far the team is off to great start for a promising year. It will be a very exciting year for Perry Badminton.