By Scott Brinton
Rather, they jeered at his newfound sport. Segal, a senior, didn't appreciate their condescension, but he understood it. Until recently, he thought much as they did. He, too, mocked badminton.
Before watching the game played at the Beijing Olympics in August, Segal says, he hadn't considered it to be a "real sport." Now he speaks of its merits with missionary zeal, and he plays it with even greater passion. Moreover, he is committed to popularizing badminton among his fellow students.
Badminton, Segal says, "is extremely competitive. It's fast-paced. The competition is just you and [your opponent]. It's just you."
Segal is one of 60 Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District students who are taking part in something of an experiment this fall: boys' badminton.
For decades, girls have played the sport in New York, but not boys. In certain counties, like Suffolk, a few boys have played on girls' teams, but they have not been allowed to score in matches, which boys' badminton proponents say defeats the purpose of competing. Now, though, boys who love this ancient game, a form of which was played more than 2,000 years ago in Greece, are at last getting their due -- at least in Nassau County.
Seeing how much both boys and girls love to play badminton in phys. ed. classes, Central District Athletics Director Saul Lerner petitioned the Section VIII Public High School Athletic Council two years ago to create an interscholastic boys' badminton league in Nassau County. The answer was yes, Lerner says, provided that he find at least six teams to take part in it.
In the Central District, Lerner instantly had three -- Calhoun, Kennedy and Mepham. He needed three more. Jericho and Great Neck North and South high schools signed on as well. And so, this fall, boys' badminton marks its inaugural season in New York, in Nassau only.
The hope, Lerner says, is that the sport will spread throughout the county and to other parts of the state, becoming as popular as it is in California, where equipment manufacturer Yonex sponsors the state championship. Lerner notes that girls' lacrosse began in Nassau County with a handful of schools and caught on in the mid- to late 1990s. Now it's an integral part of most of the county's high school athletic programs.
Badminton, Lerner says, "takes a great deal of strategy, training and athleticism. I was hoping it would attract kids who would otherwise not be participating in a fall sport."
Segal is one such athlete. He has played varsity volleyball for four years at Kennedy in the winter, and as a child he took part in youth basketball outside school, but never before had he played a fall sport.
Mustering the courage to join an untested team in a fledgling sport, though, was a challenge for Segal. Joining with three of his best friends -- Zach Goldstein, Stephan Tolila and Adam Friedman -- made the decision easier for him. "Most people mocked us," Segal says. He notes, however, "If you have the confidence to do something like this, despite what other people think, that's great. We started telling people, our friends, to come to the games. They started showing respect."
Goldstein, a member of Kennedy's Future Business Leaders of America and Yorker clubs, says of badminton, "I thought it would be fun. It would be something different, the first-ever boys' badminton team in New York state."
Goldstein, who is 1-2 in fourth doubles, says the game "is intense. You do whatever you can to win. You get into it. You get into a good match, and there's no stopping, no breaks whatsoever." In fact, no timeouts are allowed in badminton, except in the case of injury.
Tolila plays first singles on Kennedy's varsity tennis team and is being recruited by Bryant and Roger Williams universities and Muhlenberg and Franklin & Marshall colleges. He compares tennis to badminton. "It's the same," Tolila says. "There's a mental aspect to the game. If you get down on yourself, you're not going to win."
For years, Calhoun senior Eric Feldman played baseball in the Merrick-North Merrick Little League, and will play right field on Calhoun's varsity team in the spring. He joined the badminton team to try a new sport and is having a ball, despite his squad's early struggles against teams like Jericho, which has players who have competed in youth badminton leagues since they were kids.
"With practice, everyone on the team is getting so much better," Feldman says. "It's just a great experience. We're learning techniques you would not have thought about."
June Spruyt, who became Calhoun's athletic coordinator in 2004, coaches the team. Before this fall, she says, "The boys continually asked why there wasn't a boys' badminton team."
Mepham senior Jonathan Scutchfield joined the team because he liked playing in his high school's annual badminton tournament/charity fundraiser, which attracts roughly 140 competitors each October. Scutchfield's older brother, Timothy, 19, won the tournament as a senior. Scutchfield, who also plays varsity lacrosse, says simply of badminton, "It's fun. It's competitive."
Mike Muscara, Mepham's athletic coordinator, says badminton is huge at the school. "The kids in this school, they would play badminton every day in gym" if given the choice, he says.
Lerner says high school students love badminton because they can pick up a racket and a shuttlecock, or birdie, and instantly begin playing, without special training. He says, though, that mastering the game requires the same high-level training as any other sport.
"This is a real sport," Lerner says. Boys' badminton "is going to grow over the next couple of years, and it's going to become a major sport."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
