The Arcadia High School (AHS) Varsity Badminton team won the CIF Southern Section (CIF-SS) Open Division Title on May 14, 2022, with a final score of 12-9 against Diamond Bar High School. This is the 2nd consecutive time the Badminton team has won the event, and it’s only the 5th year since the program began. 

The Badminton team is led by Head Coach Mike Stiles, JV Head Coach/Varsity Assistant Coach Derrick Ng, Assistant Coaches James Wang and Leo Wong, and Team Administrator Eric Shen. 

Winning a CIF title is no easy feat as the Badminton team is in the Open Division. 

“The Open Division is the highest level of competition in CIF-SS,” said Varsity Assistant Coach Derrick Ng. “The CIF-SS Badminton committee, of which Arcadia Head Coach, Mike Stiles, and Diamond Bar Head Coach, Kemp Wells, are part of, meet before playoffs begin to essentially categorize each school based on their performance during the season and place each school in the appropriate playoff division.”

Not only did Badminton team members practice during period 6, the coaches helped set up practices in the North Gym outside of school hours this season.

“Rewinding to first semester…we began holding ‘Open Gym’ every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 8-10 pm,” said Assistant Coach James Wang. “The coaches conditioned the players with numerous drills that incorporated speed, stamina, and technique. Right before our season began, we implemented separate training times between JV and Varsity (JV 5:00-6:30pm and Varsity 6:30-8:00pm) to ensure all players are guaranteed efficient training sessions.”

Although all the Badminton players from Diamond Bar were extremely talented, junior Matthew Li shares his thoughts on why he felt Arcadia was able to come away with the victory. 

“Arcadia was able to defeat Diamond Bar this year because our players were more prepared mentally. Diamond Bar had many players whose technical skill and athletic ability outmatched Arcadia, [but] our players were ready to give their best and this gap,” said Li. “Our players were better adapted to executing strategies formulated with the help of the coaches.”

“Our CIF Team Championship win was a culmination of hard work throughout the pre-season and actual season,” said Varsity Captain senior Kathy Liu.”There were definitely bumps along the road, but we played for the team. As our coach said to us before the game, ‘Today there is no I, only we.’”

Arcadia’s team spirit is one of a kind, and as Varsity Assistant Captain Joseph Bee said, “Don’t ever give up on a game. Just because you play a few bad shots doesn’t mean the whole game is over. Cheer your teammates on! Support your teammates because they will do the same for you!”

After a long day, several members celebrated by going out to dinner; and of course, many photos were taken. 

“Winning CIF Championships was a huge achievement for everyone: coaches, parents, and of course the players, because to see all our hard work and training pay off, was truly a surreal feeling,” said Varsity Captain Senior Reanne Chen. “Going into the match, we had hopes to defend our CIF Championship title from the last season, which we did in the end.” 

Finally, congratulations to Andrea Lou, Kathy Liu, Matthew Li, Joseph Bee, Matthew Yu, Reanne Chan, Andrew Wu, Sidney Wang, Caleb Xu, Emmery Chang, and Pauline Tong for all doing exceptionally well at the CIF-SS Individual Championships. They all qualified for the CIF-State Southern California Regional Championships that was held on May 21st. 

Best of luck to all future endeavors of the Badminton team! Go Apaches!

Photo Courtesy of AUSD DCI