By Julissa Flores ‘25
Derby High School recently held a special tournament for students interested in playing badminton on Oct. 3, Oct. 4, and Oct.8, 2024. The tournament was held in the gym and put together by PE teacher Carlin Ali. The idea originally came from a group of students from the previous senior class.
Badminton is a sport similar to pickleball and tennis. It is a racket sport and is played in groups of 1 or 2 on each side of the net, and they have to pass the birdie back and forth to try to score a point. Ali says, “The students were trying to decide who was the best at badminton because they all had different periods so they never got to play against each other, so I told them before they graduated we could have a tournament.” Ali also adds “So I met with Mrs. Olson to do a set of whole school badminton tournaments so they’d be able to play each other.”
Jayzair Barbera ‘25 was one of the finalists in this badminton tournament. Barbera remarked that he was good at badminton and had fun playing it. He said, “I played badminton in gym class last year and it was a fun game so my friend and I signed up for it.” Including Barbera, the other finalists who participated were Albert Disla ‘25, Rashiya McNeil ‘25, and Ayden Martinez ‘25.
These finalists stated that they felt confident and had certain techniques and strategies for how they would beat one another. One of the winners of the tournament, Rashiya McNeil ‘25 says, “The strategies I used were when I serve, because I feel like I’m a good server, I hit the ball. Boom! Then I smack it down and it makes it hard for people to catch the birdie.” The other winner, Albert Disla ‘25 says, “I had a lot of communication with my partner and just playing my role and making sure everyone stayed in their lane and made smart decisions.”
Both Disla and McNeil were super excited and collected their awards at the school’s pep rally on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. McNeil also remarked, “ I mean, I feel really good, you know? I had to go up in front of the whole pep rally and get my trophy, my shirt, it says my last name and everything, you know? I represent what being a McNeil is.” Disla felt confident that he was going to win the tournament already. “I wasn’t worried about it, I had already seen the competition and was like, oh, I’m already winning this.”
Hopefully, we will see more tournaments come soon. Ali says, “There’s a few that we could do in gym like volleyball, basketball, and pickleball. So that’s where we’re gonna start, but this was the first and there will be more.”
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