Paly Badminton is one of the only co-ed teams in the athletics program. Last season, the team performed phenomenally as they won every single game. 

“We were able to go to CCS and we were eligible and got to the DeAnza league to El Camino league,” Senior Megha Madhabhushi (‘23) said.

Madhabhushi (‘23) has been on the team for all of her high school career as a Varsity Girls Singles player. She is the social media manager and official post writer. 

“A badminton tradition we have is that we collect all of the amazing performances and funny remarks from each game and make a subsequent post to the team with emojis. It is a morale booster and encourages our community!” Madhabhushi (‘23) said. 

The team was able to succeed greatly not only through hard work and dedication, but through collaboration and perseverance. 

“The biggest issue of last season was that we did not have a stable coach. We had an amazing coach, Coach Enzo, who took time out of his college education to coach. For the bulk of the season, he was the coach but he had to return to college so there was a transition period,” Madhabhushi (‘23) said.  

The team’s previous coach, Coach Lim, returned once Coach Enzo had to return to college, leaving his retirement in Florida. 

“Adjusting to the new coaching style was the only rough part, but even under him, we succeeded and excelled,” Madhabhushi (‘23) said. 

During this transition time, the upperclassmen stepped up to ensure the underclassmen were receiving support and welcome.

“Without a permanent coach, we, the seniors, felt that it was their obligation to ensure that the freshmen had as good as the experience we had. Thus, we connected and spent a lot of our practices getting to know each other. Whether it be through competition or humor, we really connected and created our community,” Madhabhushi (‘23) said. 

Last season, their practices started off with warm-up and then planned their upcoming events for that week including games, practices, and etc. Afterwards, they split based on their events and for the next 30-40 minutes, they worked on event-specific techniques to hone their skills.

“The amazing thing about badminton is that there is a lighthearted atmosphere. Of course, we want to do well, but there is not a lot of pressure. It is very supportive and caring, and there are a lot of people there that can help you improve,” Madhabhushi (‘23) said.

This season, the team moved up a league, meaning the competition and opponents will prove to be more difficult.

“Our goal as a team is to continue our winning streak from last season. This season, we were looking for more underclassmen leadership and we look forward to them taking over once we seniors leave,” Madhabhushi (‘23) said.

The team is preparing for their first game of the season against Lynbrook on March 9th in the Paly gym.

“Right now, we are trying to get more game experience through our scrimmages versus Mountain View and Los Altos. As a team, we are feeling strong and are very excited to get back into the game season,” Madhabhushi (‘23) said.