Eyes on the birdie.
Racquets up.
For as much as both steps are paramount to being fully engaged the moment one steps on the badminton court for a competitive game, a quick look much closer to the floor is where coaches and players alike migrated at the Collège Boréal varsity team practice on Tuesday.
“There’s a lot of footwork; you can’t stress that enough,” noted 22 year-old Kristen Vane, a four year veteran of the team who has morphed from her OCAA start in mixed doubles play to a heavy focus on the individual one on one battles in 2024-2025.
“It’s key in singles.”
It’s also very much front of mind when it comes to a coaching staff that features a pair of former Vipères badminton alumnus.
“You’re always in your ready stance, taking that little hop and making your way to the bird,” noted Brittany Bisson, roughly a decade removed from her playing days in the New Sudbury gymnasium and now in her fifth season serving as an assistant coach with the varsity badminton squad.
“It’s all about moving feet quicker,” she added. “A lot of the drills that target footwork are about your placement on the court.”
With a crew of six athletes on board, the team is gearing up for the OCAA Provincial Championships taking place on February 14th and 15th at Conestoga College in Kitchener.
First year head coach Jason Lytle goes back even further than Bisson, to a time when both Lynn Michel and the late Dennis Dionne were guiding the program. Stepping away from the sport a bit as life got busy, Lytle would return in very much the same way as countless parents in minor sport settings so often do.
“My own kids are now extremely involved (with Sudbury Junior Badminton Club), so I offered to help them as much as I can,” explained the local product who graduated from Villa Francaise des Jeunes in Elliot Lake. “Then there was an opening here (at Boréal), so I took it.”
Still active as a player, Lytle has developed, in part, through on court mistakes, with long-time local badminton aficionado Mike Dionne often lending a helping hand in correcting the technical flaws. “I am always learning,” said Lytle. “I am always studying this sport. I play with a lot of high-end club members and I am constantly learning from them.”
“And I am thankful to have a lot of really good people in my corner: Jim Duff, Lynn Michel, Mike Dionne.”
The badminton community in northern Ontario is a tight one, indeed.
A freshman at Boréal this year, Emilie Ingram is a familiar face on the NOBA circuit, the Sturgeon Falls native having competed for some five years now as a member of KTP Racquet Club team in North Bay – often as a mixed team partner with Colin Evans.
“It was fun transitioning to club badminton because it was more challenging,” recalled Ingram. “And there are so many different levels of players.”
In terms of her OCAA experience to date, Ingram has spent the bulk of her game time on the court paired with Maryssa Mercier, a setting that the 18 year-old graduate of Ecole secondaire Franco-Cité prefers.
“I think my favourites are doubles and mixed, just because I am not having to work by myself,” she said. “I think having another person on the court to help me cover is so much better.”
As for specific areas of improvement as she and Mercier wind down the season in the month ahead, Ingram targets one of the basic tenets to any tandem that competes in events other than singles play.
“We already have a good connection on the court – but it would be nice to have an even better one,” she said.
As for Vane, she is as surprised as anyone about her newfound love for going it solo in badminton.
“I used to hate singles in high-school,” said the young woman who followed up a year in the Carpentry program with three years of Architectural Technology. “It was just so much harder to play, just because you are alone. But last year, I kind of discovered that I am actually okay at singles.”
“I just embraced it this year and fell in love with it because I actually perform a lot better in singles.”
The upcoming provincials, however, won’t be easy. A few months back, Vane tore her MCL – and while she has been given the okay to complete the year without surgery, the time off needed to rest her left knee has left her slightly behind the eight ball.
Time to tap into some of the wisdom she has garnered on the mental side of her game these past few years. “In singles, you can’t let anything affect you,” said Vane. “You can’t afford to still be on that (lost) point four or five points later. In doubles, you have that partner who can help you snap that off.”
“In singles, you have to be able to let things go more easily.”
That mindset is almost a given at Collège Boréal, as Brittany Bisson learned all too well – both as an athlete and a coach.
“We’re always looked at as the underdogs coming into competitions,” stated the 29 year-old assistant coach. “We are from a smaller school. We have a smaller pool of athletes. So it’s all about really staying positive and giving it your all on the court.”
And, of course, always keeping your feet moving – because footwork, it seems, is every bit as important as racquet skills and cardio when it comes to badminton success.
The Vipères certainly know that.
Members of the 2024-2025 Boréal Badminton team are: Eric Leduc, Arsene Mboutue, Alyssa Gagné, Kristen Vane, Maryssa Mercier and Emilie-Ann Ingram.
