FHS Badminton is on a roll this year. Some may know that they won the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) last year. Since that victory, they have been looking to win again, and hopefully move to the higher division of the league. Badminton, like most sports in SCVAL,         has two leagues with a promotion and relegation system where the worst team in the upper league drops down and the best team advances from the lower league. However, Fremont’s win last year did not count for this, as COVID-19 made it impossible to play a full season. Last year affected turnout, but the team was surprised by the number of athletes who showed up for this season.

“Last year we struggled to have a team and especially because like half of our team were seniors, which means they wouldn’t come back for the next year,” junior Isha Singh, the FHS Badminton President, said. “That was kind of a big concern for us. But this year, we had a huge turnout.”

Another difficulty faced by the FHS Badminton team is their lack of permanent coaching. Over the past five years, there have been three separate coaches for the team, but, according to Singh, this has forced the team’s student leadership to step up which overall has been a good thing.

“I think it is unique, that since we don’t have consistent coaches, it’s been largely student motivated and so I think last year our win was like a lot because of the fact that everybody on the team was working together,” Singh said.

Fremont Badminton has already won their early-season games, and while they did lose a couple of scrimmages to teams in the upper league of SCVAL, they are hopeful that if they are able to win the league this year, they will be ready to play at the higher level.

“Our goal is to be able to continue to give ourselves a fighting chance in the upper League and grow our badminton team better and better,” Singh said.