Over the last four years, the badminton team has experienced significant success, and is continuing that this year, varsity co-captain Arida Narayan said.
The team plays in the top leagues, including De Anza and Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL), and has consistently been winning, Narayan said.
“In the three years that there’s been something called CCS champions, we’ve been CCS champions every single time,” Narayan said. “At the state level, we have sent people to NorCal as well,” she added.
The reason for their success is the team’s emphasis on collaboration, Narayan said.
“We really focus on team support and working together,” Narayan said.
The team won the sportsmanship award, which is awarded every year at CCS, junior Charles Bi said.
“The team being very tight-knit has something to do with the award, but it’s largely due to our coach as well,” Bi said. “He encourages us to talk it out with the team, and he’ll host team bonding events.”
Many of the varsity players voluntarily stay behind during games to support the players, Bi said.
“Our energy and friendship as a team makes us stand out,” Bi said. “The fact that we stay around and cheer for games improves our performance and takes it to the next level,” he said.
Much of the JV team’s success is also because of varsity players staying behind during practice to support the team, Narayan said.
“We do feeding drills and give the JV players advice,” Narayan said. “The varsity players often act as coaches.”
The morale of the team is very good, and everyone is always supportive of each other, senior and varsity co-captain Ardra Mohan said.
“We also have very strong players, which definitely contributes to our success,” Mohan said.
Although the team is very successful, there are still some things to be improved upon for next year, Narayan said.
“This year we’re focusing on building a stronger community for next year,” Narayan said. “We need to help the team figure out how to work once all these players leave next year.”
The biggest challenge the team faces is trying to recover from the long breaks between seasons, Mohan said.
“The season is short and there’s a lot of time off, so many people aren’t yet accustomed to playing at the beginning of the season,” Mohan said. “Towards the middle and end, we usually recover and start playing normally.”
The team’s goal this year is to continue the success we’ve had in our league, Bi said.
“We want to complete the 4 peat, winning CCS for the 4th year in a row,” Bi said.
In addition, the team wants more people to make it to the NorCal level, Narayan said.
“To make it to NorCal, players need to get top four at CCS,” Narayan said. “We’re working on helping more people place at CCS, so we can send them to NorCal.”