The Case for Mixed Doubles
My high school badminton origin story
More than two decades ago, I was in Grade 11. I was playing badminton at the provincial level but because I went to Vancouver College (VC), an independent Catholic school, there was no badminton team. I mean, we were an all-boys school, so what sports are there for a Chinese-born Canadian student? My mom forbade me from playing football, and though my younger brother almost snuck in a season (Mom forbade him too), it never crossed my mind because I was a scrawny Asian kid. I still am in some ways.
I tried basketball and played in my elementary school days, but by the time I was in Grade 7, I spent more time on the bench. I definitely don't blame the coach, because one time he put me in at the end of a game, I had a breakaway, went for a lay-up, and still missed the basket. He spoke with my mom and I after the game, and asked how he could play me if I couldn't even score something so easy. We weren't even mad. These were just the facts and we understood where he was coming from. I can't imagine how that situation might be different today... but let's not go there.
Later that year, there was a badminton tournament between the Catholic schools, and VC let me enter the tournament. The basketball coach, who also happened to be my homeroom teacher, was assigned to take me to the tournament as the teacher sponsor. After my basketball performance, he probably had low expectations when I arrived at the qualification tournament with 40 other kids. Long story short, I ended up beating everyone in long pants (I had a phase where I didn't want to wear shorts for some reason that escapes me). My teacher was at a loss for words, but for me, it was just another badminton tournament. 😎
However, that was the end of badminton in middle school, and in high school at Vancouver College, there was no badminton team anymore. I saw in older yearbooks that it used to exist, but by the time I was in Grade 11, it was almost 10 years since there was high school badminton at our school. My mission that year was to see if it would be possible to have a team, and there was great interest from my Asian friends, as they also played recreationally outside of school. The first problem was finding a teacher sponsor. We asked many of our teachers, but due to a strict timeline, we were unable to find a teacher sponsor that season. Well, maybe next year… but that would be my final chance.
Next year rolls around and we started asking earlier. In the end, our physics teacher, Mr. Kim, stepped up to help. He didn't even play badminton, but I guess he just wanted to support us because we didn't give up after the previous year. Funny thing was that I was considering studying engineering at university, but then I failed physics in first year and abandoned that idea pretty quickly (totally my fault, of course). I'm glad I took Physics 11 and 12 with Mr. Kim, but I wonder if he would have agreed to be our teacher sponsor if I hadn’t been his student.
The second problem was to find another school to partner with. I don't know how else to put this, so I'll just say it: with minimal opportunities to engage with girls, this pretty much was a huge deal for an Asian guy back then. Remember, there was NO social media, and most people didn't even have cell phones, let alone text messaging. You literally had to call home phone numbers and ask for permission to speak to people (good times 😳). At the time, none of the independent schools were partnered up for badminton, so we had a fair amount of sway in which school we wanted to partner with. Since most of us knew other players from Little Flower Academy (LFA), it was a fitting match, as they are an independent Catholic school as well. Once we had our teacher sponsor, everything else came together pretty quickly.
The season went well, and we won against a lot of the Vancouver schools. Then we learned that none of those games counted, and we had to do some kind of back-door tournament to qualify for provincial championships. We weren't happy about it, but there wasn't anything we could do because those were the rules at the time until now. Fortunately, we made it to provincials, but then another problem came: high school provincials overlapped with Canadian junior nationals.
As much as I wanted to continue our amazing first season, I couldn't just give up on my own pursuit of winning a junior national title. I ended up competing in Ottawa instead, and VC/LFA finished sixth. I know we would have done better if I stayed, as we could have potentially won up to two more matches per tie. For those who aren't familiar with the high school badminton system, it is best to 11 matches as a team event, where there are two singles, eight doubles, and one mixed doubles. There are an 'A' and 'B' doubles team for boys and girls, and generally, the singles players will also play mixed together, so every player will get two matches.
Despite leaving to pursue my own badminton goals, I'm glad I had the chance to start a team because there are times where you might start something, but may not get the opportunity to see things through to the end. My brother, Derrick, continued leading the team after I graduated, coming in second place in his final year. However, he returned to coach the team and after three consecutive years with a second place finish, they finally got their long awaited provincial title, and our original teacher sponsor, Mr. Kim, finally got that return on investment, 6 years later!
I can't speak for other public school teams, but as a student at VC for 13 years, I'm grateful for the opportunities in sport to interact with girls in a constructive environment. Although I started off competing in boy's doubles, I continued my badminton journey after high school, and despite never finding that junior national title, I ended up winning a gold medal at Canada Winter Games, six senior/open national titles (with three different partners), a gold medal at the Pan American Games, and a chance to compete at the Olympic Games... all in mixed doubles.
Most people would agree with me that each doubles event has unique differences, especially at higher levels of competition. Even how we communicate, there are differences in what to say and how to say it, and it has been an incredible learning experience in how to work with the opposite sex. And it will always be an ongoing learning experience, and every opportunity is a chance to be a bit better.
Why remove the opportunity for boys and girls to work together to achieve a team outcome, especially for independent school students?
Why is it that we are taking away these opportunities for other high school students?
What can be so important that we are removing an Olympic event that is co-ed, especially in a time where we are pushing for more female athlete participation?
Some people may believe that this will increase sport participation, but I would disagree primarily because there is now one less match played if they simply split the system up into best of five matches (1 singles, 4 doubles) per gender. Additional resources will also be required to maintain separate teams, including separate managers, coaches, and teacher sponsors. There is also no reason for teams to train together, because they aren't competing together.
It was nice to revisit the VC/LFA this season and give a guest appearance! It’s great to see the sport grow and continue throughout the years, with new people stepping up to take the lead.
One of the most valuable lessons I learned in mixed doubles is that we often have different strengths and weaknesses, and teams that complement each other are better than those that divide their efforts 50/50.
So let's all work together to preserve this unique opportunity for boys and girls in high school sport.
Please sign the petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/keep-high-school-badminton-co-ed
I signed and shared the petition a few days ago, but Toby, I wanted you to know that one of the reasons I felt so strongly about it, is that I always felt that badminton gave us a safe place to interact with the other sex, without all the pressures that dating can have. This is in addition to the wonderful game of mixed doubles itself. Thank you for writing this.