Sherwood's badminton squad defends their title...

Earlier in the term, our two squads of Year 5 & 6 students travelled to North Harbour Badminton to compete in the 2022 Primary Schools Team Challenge. The pressure was on as Sherwood won the title last year and a few other schools were keen to take it back. 

But apart from our seasoned veteran Mizuki who played in the tournament last year, it was a whole new squad who knew everyone was coming after them. That didn't deter the players though as they put in the hard yards leading up to the event. A number of our players play at North Harbour Badminton out of school hours and put a lot of extra work in during their own time. 

This year we entered two teams, one in Division 1 and the other into Division 2. Teams played a mix of singles and doubles matches throughout the day against schools from all over the North Shore. Although players were trying to out score their opponents, the positive atmosphere and sportsmanship from all the schools was inspiring.

Our Division 2 squad was made up of students brand new to competitive badminton. They experienced the highs and lows that comes with winning and losing as all teams do. However, the effort and positive attitude they put into each game was phenomenal. Every game they played they learned a little more about competitive badminton. Beginning of the day saw lots of shuttles being hit up nicely so the opposition could hit it back easily. Towards the end of the day, those lovely nice hits turned into ferocious smashes into space making any return challenging. Congratulations Team 2 on an awesome introduction to badminton and we hope the Year 5 players return for next year and the Year 6's give it a go at intermediate! 

Our Division 1 team had a difficult road ahead of them. The calibre of skill shown on the court from the other schools was outstanding. However, Sherwood had an ace up their sleeve. The team remembered it was a 'Team' challenge, so it didn't matter how many games a single player won or lost but was up to the collective results of the team. They had some difficult battles but in the end their perseverance paid off and won the games they needed. Congratulations Team 1 on winning the 2022 Primary Schools Badminton Team Challenge for the 2nd year in a row!

Check out some of the highlights of the day below:

Ngā mihi
Andrew Smart
Physical Education Specialist & Sports Coordinator