By Alana Penny
The four members of the Badminton club begin to set up their net in the Memorial Hall gym. It’s 2:30 p.m. Friday, so they’re sharing court time with the basketball teams. They get out their rackets and shuttlecocks and they’re ready to go.
The Badminton club was created by Aadya Bagul, a third year biomedical science major with minors in neurobiology and chemistry, in spring 2019. She started it because she played on her high school’s badminton team all four years and missed it when she got to SUNY Plattsburgh.
Riley Savastano, a freshman adolescent geologic education major, joined the club after his friend Sean told him about it.
“I like that I got to meet two new people and getting to play badminton gives nostalgia back to when you get to play random games in gym class,” Savastano said.
Sean Vogl also joined the club for the gym class nostalgia. He enjoys the casual environment it provides.
“It was really fun [in high school] so I thought I might as well do it in college too,” Vogl said. “I just texted a friend when I found out the club was a thing and we just wanted to play badminton like we did in high school again so it is super fun.”
Members of the club play singles and doubles games. They relay, which is playing a game without keeping score, and play games where they keep score.
Bagul hopes to make the club an official sports team before she graduates in two semesters. To do this the club would need at least 20 committed members who attend weekly. She said she has been working hard to get their name out there, writing something in the student digest every week.
Her favorite part of being involved is playing.
“I did this solely for this reason so I could play, get the energy out. Its also nice meeting new people,” Bagul said.
She said most students join the club with little to no badminton experience but she enjoys teaching them.
“I enjoy teaching them how to hit and things, although its very basic,’ Bagul said. “I thoroughly enjoy teaching. It’s a learning process for me too, to explain it when it comes naturally to me.”
The club meets every Friday from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Memorial Hall Gym. They may move outside soon as the weather gets nicer.
“If you enjoyed doing random things in gym or even just any activity, it’s an hour of moving around so it’s super fun,” Savastano said.
