TRU badminton team heads east
Thompson Rivers University will be well represented as the 2008 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Badminton Championships kick off later this week (Feb 28) in New Brunswick. WolfPack head coach Brad Pape (pronounced Pay-p) will direct the BC Wildcard team. Four of his athletes: Garrett Babichuk (1 st year, Kelowna BC), Andy Chu (4 th year, Tiawan), Marlee Mertens (1st year, Salmon Arm BC) and Quinie Song (2nd year China) will be part of the club. It’s the first time in three years that TRU has been represented.
“British Columbia does traditionally strong at this event,” says Pape, who is up for Coach of the Year honors. “Last year we finished with the gold and silver medals.”
Pape says in his 23 years of coaching College Badminton, he’s never seen one school dominate the BC league. Such was the case this year as the Team BC roster is entirely made up of players from number one ranked Douglas College.
“They are certainly the team to beat,” Pape declares. He also likes Alberta’s chances. That province features probably the top player in the country in Jon Vandervet of Concordia University College.
The BC Wildcard team consists of the four TRU players along with Megan Kim of Malispina (womens singles), Kiran Bogavelli of Capilano (mens singles) and Mike Clark and Lena Watt of Malaspina (mixed doubles). Clark is recovering from a bad ankle sprain suffered at the recent BC championships. There was some question whether or not he could attend. If he was unable to, Alex Perkin and his partner Ming Wong (both 1st year, Kamloops, BC) would have attended.
“I wouldn’t put us out of either a silver or bronze medal,” thinks Pape.
Pape says it’s a major feather in the cap of the Interior High school and Club Badminton programs to have players from the area go to the Nationals.
“The calibre of local players is steadily improving,” he adds pointing to efforts in both Salmon Arm and Kamloops (coordinated by Pape’s assistant, Ross Perkin) to grow the number of players participating.