The UC High Badminton team is looking for another successful season this year after achieving a CIF title last season.

   After a strong last season, several individuals on the team have created their own set of goals both for themselves as well as for the team. Captain Christina Lien said, “This season I have many goals that I wish to accomplish. I hope that my team makes it to CIF finals again and wins the CIF title. I also hope that my teammates are able to go far in many of our upcoming tournaments.”

   This upcoming season may be a whole new challenge for the team as they must deal with the absence of several individuals. Lien said, “The team has faced a change of pace this season due to our Head Coach, Jordana Tu, having a leave of absence at the beginning of the season. Although she has updated us on practice schedules and what to do, being without a Head Coach has caused us to have a slow start.” Captain Alex Gonsalves said, “Last year, a lot of our strong players graduated. We will struggle a bit this year; however, I still believe we are a strong team.”

   When it comes to goals, many people on the team have one particular in mind. Gonsalves said, “The biggest thing I want to accomplish personally is a CIF Singles title as well as a team title.” Lien said, “The biggest thing that I wish to accomplish this season is to win a CIF Women’s Singles title during the CIF Individuals tournament. I have trained very hard to achieve that goal and hopefully by June, it will all have been worth it.”

   As the team faces several opponents this season, a few in particular are on the minds of the team’s players. “This year, I think there is really only one main rival team. Patrick Henry [High] is strong again this year and will be tough to beat. The other strong teams are Serra, Madison and possibly Hoover [High],” said Gonsalves. Lien said, “A major rival team is Scripps Ranch [High]. This is mainly due to both schools competing against each other at CIF team finals last year, and the year before that.”

   To prepare for this season, the team has conditioned and trained in order to be in peak shape for competition. “For this season, I have been conditioning and practicing drills with my team to prepare for the upcoming tournaments and games that we will have,” said Lien. “To prepare we have been doing conditioning like running and footwork drills, as well as multi shuttle drills in order to become more proficient in our shots,” said Gonsalves.