It is fascinating how the present and the past currently collide, in a very good way, in the circle that is Sudbury and area badminton.
On the one hand, North Bay sport entrepreneur and NOBA (Northern Ontario Badminton Association) president Kurt Tempelmans Plat has immersed himself into the research for all sorts of historical data for the regional group, a venture that not surprisingly would lead him many of the people and stories that allowed badminton to thrive in outposts like Creighton, the Inco Club and in Garson.
Those efforts, of course, are put on hold at times when the young northerner is attending to the needs of the current crop of talent and those adults who remain very engaged in the sport, as Tempelmans Plat hosted the KTP Racquet Club Open this past weekend at his facility in North Bay.
Either way, this is a completely new landscape for someone like Sota Saito.
The 17 year-old international student selected badminton over the more popular options of soccer and baseball in his native Japan as his sport of choice – which in his home country means a vastly different experience than what he sees in Canada.
“In Japan, we have lots of time to practice,” said the senior at St Benedict Catholic Secondary School who competed at the Open tournament in North Bay. “In Canada, we have a school club, but it’s only seasonal. In Japan, we can only join one club; when I join badminton, I don’t do other sports.”
“We practice during summer vacations and winter vacations.”
While he did take a crack at other sports in Kyoto in his pre high-school days, there is something about the individuality of badminton that meshed particularly well with Saito. “I am not good at team sports; I am not good at communication with my teammates,” he said. “I found that for me, playing alone was more fun.”
“The game is so fast.”
Mind you even badminton has a team component as one branches off into doubles or mixed doubles play. Throw in the fact that he has spent all of just eight months or so in Canada and one can see where there is an appeal to answering only to himself.
“Sometimes, I can’t understand my teammates – and sometimes, I know what I want to say with my partner but I don’t say it well,” said Saito.
Communication is definitely not an issue for defending city champion Matteo Rocca, a highly articulate senior at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School. While he did not take part in the KTP Open, the 17 year-old did find out recently that both he and Gillian Obradovich will represent the Sudbury area as part of the NOBA team which will compete at the Ontario Winter Games next month.
“That was completely unexpected – it’s really something,” said Rocca. “Just qualifying for the Games is good enough for me. I want to go and watch the high level of skill that the players down south will produce. Playing against some of those players who play six or seven times a week would be phenomenal.”
“It would be a great opportunity to grow as a player.”
Gradually inching his way along the spectrum of being more and more committed to badminton, Rocca stayed with it, even in the off-season, looking to see just how far he could take it in his final year of secondary schooling. “I’ve been practicing twice a week since club has been back – both here and in North Bay,” he said.
“I practiced over the summer too. It’s all about consistency, right? I doubt that I would have qualified for the Ontario Winter Games if I hadn’t practiced regularly.”
As for the weekend tournament, there was no lack of familiar names. Here’s a breakdown of the top three in each of the categories at the KTP Tournament:
Women's Singles:1. Amber Flannigan (Sudbury)
2. Michelle Kozlowskyj (Toronto)
3. Josée Portelance (Timmins)
Men's Singles:
1. Cameron Duff (Sudbury)
2. Dominik Brunette-Royer (Sudbury)
3. Julien Belanger (Sudbury)
Women's Doubles:
1. Lynn Michel (Sudbury) + Emilie Roy (Timmins)
2. Amber Flannigan (Sudbury) + Gillian Obradovich (Sudbury)
3. Josée Portelance (Timmins) + Danielle Portelance (Timmins)
Men's Doubles:
1. Julien Belanger (Sudbury) + Dominik Brunette-Royer (Sudbury)
2. Kurt Tempelmans-Plat (North Bay) + Adam Wallace (North Bay)
3. Benjamin Houle (Hearst) + Fréderic Houle (Elliot Lake)
Mixed Doubles:
1. Michelle Kozlowskyj (Toronto) + Fréderic Houle (Elliot Lake)
2. Lynn Michel (Sudbury) + Julien Belanger (Sudbury)
3. Gillian Obradovich (Sudbury) + Dominik Brunette-Royer (Sudbury)
Sure, I suppose that we can list Michelle Kozlowskyj as being a Torontonian, given her recent move to accept a job with Badminton Ontario (Operations Coordinator) – but we all know that the graduate of E.S.C. Sacré-Coeur who went on to make history at Collège Boréal with partner Fréderic Houle, the first ever members of the Vipères family to capture a medal at nationals, is about as Sudbury through and through as they come.
While she is still new to her role with the provincial sport organization (PSO), Kozlowskyj has already gained exposure to the types of work-related tasks that appealed to her in the first place. “I recently had the opportunity to be the lead PSO representative for Badminton Ontario and work with Badminton Canada at the 2022 Yonex Canadian International Challenge,” she said.
“And I am currently the lead working on the badminton side of 2023 Ontario Winter Games - which is really cool since I participated as an athlete at the Ontario Winter Games about seven years ago and now I'm the one in charge of organizing it and running it.”
Given her extensive background with NOBA as an athlete, it’s no wonder that the talented young court player still keeps the region very much at the forefront of her thoughts as she works daily to help grow her sport.
“I hope to truly be able to expand the tournament circuits to more districts - not just in the Greater Toronto Area, as this is where they are limited to,” Kozlowskyj explained. “I believe that having more tournaments in the north would also expand the sport and allow it to be viewed differently by more people.”
Away from work, badminton still remains a primary focus as the former SDSSAA and NOSSA champion admits to being not quite ready to step away from the sport, as an athlete, just yet.
“I haven't been able to train and I've only been playing for fun, but I am now an assistant coach at Seneca College which has given me more of an opportunity to play and fuel my drive to want to train again,” said Kozlowskyj. “I want to start to compete at a higher level.”
“The KTP Open in North Bay was a lot of fun, as always; it was nice to compete in the North and see a lot of familiar faces.”
