Math teacher Marian Doan has taken over as the assistant coach for the varsity and junior varsity boys and girls badminton teams, Doan said.
One of the most significant changes to badminton in the past year has been previous head coach Jerell Maneja stepping down from his position after multiple years and coach Tommy Ngyuen and coach Doan taking over as head coach and assistant coach respectively, senior co-captain Timothy Choe said.
Doan has been playing badminton for over 10 years, including her four high school years at Silver Creek High in San Jose, Doan said. While this is her first time coaching a team, she feels she is able to translate her playing experience into coaching, she said.
“As someone who struggled with what they (some players) are struggling with, I can see how they can make up for it,” Doan said. “For example, girls tend to have a little bit of a harder time getting the backhand shot, so I tell them some strategies and techniques I came up with to help overcome it.”
Going into the year, Doan was informed that last season, the girls doubles team had some trouble, Doan said.. Due to this, she chooses to spend a lot of time with girls doubles to train and coach them, she added.
“I work with girls doubles because I see a lot of myself in them from when I was in high school,” Doan said. “They are like my passion project … I’ve been working with them a lot, as well as bonding and getting to know the team, so I can mentally support them,” she added.
Although she likes utilizing her experience to help train the players, her coaching style is much different compared to the coaches she had growing up, Doan said.
“My coaches were really direct, but that was because they expected a lot from us,” Doan said. “My coaching methods are different because I try to take the positive parts of (their style) and then edit out the bad (parts of their coaching style) and make it me.”
This season, the team’s biggest strength is how tight-knit the team is, according to Doan.
“We are very united as a team; we support each other,” Doan said. “We also have a lot of talented players, and they come out and help our other players.”
Doan often leads the practices by playing with the athletes, Choe said.
“During practices, Coach Doan usually helps by being an example, playing with us, and showing us how things should be done,” Choe said.
Doan’s experience allows her to fix small things in players’ form that they often don’t notice, junior and mixed varsity player Brandon Chiang said.
“She can point out things that we don’t often see when we are playing ourselves, and she gives us strategies that we can use,” Chiang said.
Although winning matches and scrimmages have been great memories, they have not been the true highlight of the season, Doan said.
“Of course, the wins were good highlights for us, but just seeing the team come together and cheering each other on has been the best, Doan said.”
Doan’s and the team’s goal is to maintain their previous year’s success, but this season will be tougher due to the loss of many strong senior players last year, Doan said.
“Our big goal is that we’re trying to keep our championship title,” Doan said. “We were undefeated last year, or Coach Tommy was, and I hope to continue that this year.”