The Perry badminton team is looking into setting a new stage for their first few matches this season. Fresh off of the program’s first ever state championship appearance in 2014, head coach Lerina Johnson has higher expectations than ever before. With a winning reputation to uphold, the stakes are through the roof.

“In the past, I’ve had my fans and my players remain quiet in the stands because that was the badminton etiquette, but when we went to the state finals last year, the bleachers were full, [The Xavier fans] were screaming, they were so loud that it totally messed with our psych in the game.” This year they plan to turn away from their past polite behaviors and give the competition a taste of their own medicine.

With Xavier being one of their toughest competitors, the team needs to remain strong, but also continue to grow with the incoming freshman. Fortunately, there are a lot of volunteers for those positions.

During tryouts, Johnson stated, “we had 61 yellow slips turned in. We’re doing a challenge ladder…so at some point everybody should fall in order of talent on the court and I’ll just pick the number and cut it off there and everybody above that makes it and everybody below that doesn’t.”

 
With the number of students that tried out, it seems like badminton has a lot of promising candidates, which will hopefully contribute to their victory in the upcoming season.