With the advice of MVHS alum ‘24 Daphne Huang, senior Abigail Lai joined the Badminton Club as a freshman. While Lai says that she only participated in the club due to her friends on the Badminton team, she gradually became more involved as the years went on, going from member to public relations officer, co-president and now president.

“I think the club is a great outlet for players of any skill level to join,” Lai said. “A lot of people really want to play badminton, but can’t fully commit to the time requirement for the team. This is understandable, since the team does have practices three times a week and games two times a week. Some people just want to play once a week during lunch, and that’s what we have the club for.”

Junior and vice president Nandita Joshi is trying to expand the club beyond its one day per week availability through external activities, such as the Monta Vista Invitational, an annual tournament organized by Badminton Club officers, to introduce new members to the club. Due to the Badminton Club’s recent PTA fundraising for more resources, Joshi says it will be much easier for the officer team to organize the annual Monta Vista Invitational in future years.

“A lot of planning goes into the invitational because it’s a high school doubles and mixed tournament between a lot of other high schools,” Joshi said. “This is our second year hosting that invitational, and we’re hoping to keep that going for future years as well.”

While Joshi has worked to expand the Badminton Club outside of MVHS, club adviser and P.E. teacher Antonio Jen takes on additional responsibilities to facilitate the club internally. For example, towards the start of the school year, Jen and the club officers had to navigate challenges with overlapping events in the Field House. While contacting ASB Secretary Deb Mandac to request help with these challenges, funding remained an issue for the club.

“Originally, before they got the word out, the club wasn’t as popular — there weren’t as many people coming in,” Jen said. “But in these past few weeks and months, after the start of the new semester, you can tell that there are a lot of people coming in, and people are lining up. There are not enough rackets for everyone.”

According to Lai, the Badminton Club’s membership has been steadily growing. Thus, the officers have continued to work to ensure that everyone who wants to participate in the Badminton Club can do so, regardless of skill or level of commitment, as otherwise participation would be based on a first come first serve basis. 

“Since we have the space, and we got new rackets last year, we have more resources to allow more people to join our club this year,” Lai said. “We’re very welcoming towards anyone who just wants to drop by. There’s no hard commitment or anything.”

Because anyone can participate, Joshi believes the Badminton Club is a great place for freshmen to meet upperclassmen and make new friends. She sees how badminton is slowly becoming a more popular sport in the MVHS community, and that, at times, people come to the club just to hang out with friends during lunch. 

“It’s nice to network or just get to know people on the team,” Joshi said. “Since club badminton starts in September and the school season isn’t until spring, I think Badminton Club is a fun way to get to know a lot of people — especially when you’re new to the school — whether that’s the captains or just people who’ve been on the team previously, and get a little bit more familiar or be a form of practice before the season actually starts.”

As a senior, Lai is stepping back to teach the new officers and ensure that they are prepared to take over next year. Joshi, on the other hand, is determined to grow the club, become even more interested in playing badminton and participate in future events, such as the Monta Vista Invitational, which the club is planning to host. 

“I encourage everyone to come hang out with their friends every Monday and play, and definitely keep the invitational going,” Joshi said. “I hope that maybe next year, with more advertising, we can get more Monta Vista participation from people not necessarily on the team, just people interested in playing the tournament.”