One Westlock badminton player will be making a trip down to Strathmore on May 6-7 after earning a spot at the provincial badminton tournament.
Karmen Ward, a Grade 12 student at R.F. Staples, qualified for provincials with a silver-medal performance at the zone tournament held in Barrhead April 21.
“I’m pretty happy about it,” he said. “It feels quite good. It’s nice to go and have fun and see what they other schools have.”
This is the second time Ward will be going to provincials, having qualified two years ago when he was in Grade 10.
“It was a good experience,” he said of his last trip. “We went and saw the different skills of the other players.”
Ward was not the only R.F. Staples student to bring home some hardware from the zone tournament. In total, the school brought home four medals — three bronze and Ward’s silver.
The school sent eight students to Barrhead, including a mixed doubles team for the first time in five years, he said.
In addition to that novelty, coach Jon Radke also said the school has sent at least one junior boys single and senior boys single player to zones in each of the past five years.
On April 18, the school hosted a conference tournament, which drew 10 schools from across the region, with only R.F. Staples and St. Mary coming from the Pembina Hills school division. Athletes placing high enough at the conference tournament earned a spot at zones, said Radke.
This year, the only Westlock students to nab those zones spots were R.F. Staples students, Radke said.
“I’m proud of all our players and what we accomplished as a team this year,” Radke said. “I’m looking forward to next year already.”
At the junior high school level, R.F. Staples hosted the divisional tournament April 21, drawing in players from across the Pembina Hills school division.
“It was a good competition,” said R.F. coach Leanne Huppertz, adding the tournament drew in the most number of players that she had seen in a long time.
In terms of results, the day belonged to the Barrhead area of the division, she said.
Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) and Neerlandia School spent the day neck and neck chasing the title, with BCHS edging out Neerlandia 50-45 in total points.
R.F. Staples finished a distant third with 16 points.
Points were awarded based on each individual athlete’s results. Golds were worth five points, silvers were worth three and a bronze was a single point.
Huppertz said it was good for the kids to have a chance to compete against other schools, because it will give them an idea of what it will be like as they move up the ranks into senior high play.
“The kids got a lot of exposure with some competition and stuff like that,” she said.
Thanks to having played in two tournaments leading up to the divisionals, Huppertz said her players were familiar with the opponents they faced on Thursday.
Now that the season’s over, she said she appreciates the help her co-coach Kevin MacKenzie gave her in keeping things running smoothly, as well as the work Kyle Beattie did to compile the schedule for Thursday’s tournament.
