For a season that nearly never happened, the Richmond Colts senior badminton team certainly made the most of it.
With the current teachers' job action shutting down league play, the Colts were about to put their season into moth balls when head coach Tim Cheng received a phone call from the district coordinator.
Richmond High was invited to participate in the provincial wild card tournament even though the program had yet to play a single match or even finalize a roster.
"We were getting ready for our tryouts when we learned there would be no league play," said Cheng, an outside volunteer coach. "At that point I really thought it was over. After the call, I basically put the team together from scouting out players at the tryouts we had."
The provincial wild card tournament was no cake walk as the eight team tournament featured independent schools, along with entries from the Vancouver and Fraser Valley leagues. Only the top four advanced and the Colts did just enough to grab the final spot.
They moved onto the provincial championships which were at least held in familiar surroundings at the Clear One Badminton Centre in Richmond.
The Colts turned in a better than expected performance, nearly matching their podium finish of a year ago and ultimately settling for fourth place in the 16-team tournament.
"Given how little we played, top eight was all I was hoping for," added Cheng.
"The highlighted had to be defeating Pinetree (Coquitlam) given they have always had a strong program and they knocked us off last year."
The team received outstanding play from team captain Galen Lai, along with assistant Wendy Leung, Grace Mak and Shirley Guo. Leanne Wong was recognized as the Colts' MVP for the tournament, as the Grade 11 elevated her play to another level for a career best performance.
