By Scott Brinton
The Mepham and Great Neck North squads both finished the season with 9-1 records, the best in the county. The two teams played each other twice in the regular season. The first time, Mepham beat Great Neck North, 5 matches to 2. The second time, Great Neck North triumphed, 4-3. The team with the best record was declared county champion, so Mepham came out on top in the six-school boys' badminton league.
Jericho finished third, followed by Kennedy, Great Neck South and Calhoun.
More than 60 Bellmore-Merrick Central District students took part in Nassau County's -- and New York state's -- first boys' badminton league. The Section VIII Public High School Athletic Council officially sanctioned the sport for the first time this year.
Girls have played badminton in New York for decades, but not boys. In certain counties, like Suffolk, a few boys have played on girls' teams. Seeing how much both boys and girls love to play badminton in phys. ed. classes, Central District Athletic Director Saul Lerner petitioned Section VIII two years ago to create an interscholastic boys' badminton league in Nassau County. It celebrated its inaugural season this fall.
Lerner said the Mepham squad prevailed in large part because badminton has long been a popular sport at the school. An annual charity badminton tournament attracts more than 140 competitors each October. Teachers run the event. "Mepham was so successful because the Mepham phys. ed. department has created the atmosphere for the badminton team to be successful," Lerner said.
He added, "When you do a sport for the first time, you have no idea what to expect. It's a great opportunity for you to sweep it away because you just don't know what everyone really has."
After the season, any player who won 60 percent of his matches competed in a tournament for individual county titles. Mepham's top players, Joe Agler and Anthony Spadaro, won individual championships in first and second singles and received All-County honors. The top doubles team of Brian Perrone and Bobby Byrne received All-Conference honors, finishing second in first doubles, while the doubles teams of Matt Lester and Kyle Pasieka, and Darshan Patel and Matt Lazarus, took the titles in second and third doubles and also received All-County honors.
Lazarus said he was surprised to win at the county tournament. "I actually didn't think we were going to win because we lost three matches during the year," he said.
Byrne described the fall season as "exciting." "It was an honor to be the first county champs," he said.
Rich Anderson, Mepham's coach, who teaches math and science at Grand Avenue Middle School, said his squad wanted to succeed. "The kids were just really motivated and really dedicated," Anderson said. "It was just really hard to get them out of the gym. They wanted to win every match and stayed focused."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
