There are some sports that can be enjoyed by people of all ages with any level of competition, so it is no wonder that badminton is one of the more liked units of the McGowan physical education classes.

The McGowan P.E. classes are always entertaining to many with delightful units which causes a special mood within the gym.  While the underclassmen gym classes have units that are similar to badminton, like pickleball, McGowan had two other units that followed the basic movements of badminton prior to this school year in ping-pong and tennis. 

In the past years, two of the more liked units were ping-pong and badminton.  However, this year ping-pong was eliminated from the curriculum for multiple reasons, one of which is the amount of space the tables take up in the hallway.

The students have still gotten the chance to enjoy badminton in the past weeks as the unit just finished.  The love for badminton has increased this year with the absence of ping-pong.

With having more unique units throughout the year makes more students intrigued to try these units.  Having sports that aren’t as widely known makes the students intrigued to try, because if they never try then they will never know if they enjoy it.

McGowan girls P.E. teacher Devon Collier feels that there could be many reasons that the students enjoy the game.

“[Badminton] works with the students’ hand-eye coordination and footwork,” said Collier.  “They like it because they can either play doubles or singles matches. It’s also not an activity that most kids play every day.”

The students have an overwhelming amount of positive thoughts towards this unit.  Senior Christian Kuhn enjoys the badminton unit like many other units throughout the year.

“I enjoy badminton because it is different from most sports in that the object that you hit is not a ball,” Kuhn said. “This makes it different from tennis and pickleball and also gives the game a different feel compared to those two sports.” 

The differences that badminton has compared to the basic sports allows for the level of competitiveness in class to vary greatly.  With the levels varying, anyone who wants to play to have a place to play.

If someone were to walk into the gym during the badminton unit, there would be a positive energy in the air.  Having at least one unit where the students feel this way makes the entire year worth it.  From what I have noticed badminton is the unit that most students like however, there are surely some people who enjoy other ones more.  

Bella Byus, a junior at CHS, enjoys badminton for many reasons.

“I do enjoy [badminton] because you can react to the birdie,” Byus said.  “[It is] a lot faster and the movement is like tennis, but inside and it’s like a bigger game of ping pong.”

Badminton is a nice break for students to have throughout the day because it is a valuable way to reduce the stress that most people could use as a high school student.

Disclaimer: Articles designated as “Editorial” represent the views and opinions of the author, not the 2018-2019 Periscope staff, CHS/CASD administration, or the CHS student body.