Of the 12 local badminton players competing in the Monticello Empire League Tournament at Vacaville High on Friday, only one stands out in another sport.
That player, Vintage High senior Tzitziki Hernandez, excelled in wrestling this winter, placing third in the section and qualifying for the state tournament.
The third-year badminton player will be joined at Friday’s tournament, which starts at 12 p.m., by five teammates — senior Tina Nguyen in singles, and the doubles teams of senior Annika Phillips and sophomore Shyriah Aoki, and junior Linnea Carr and senior Diana Hernandez.
“Tzitziki has been outstanding all year, with five wins in the No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1 singles positions,” Vintage coach Robyn Del Zompo said of Hernandez, who will attend Napa Valley College in the fall and plans to major in biology and pursue a career as a doctor.
People are also reading…
Nguyen, a four-year player, is the Crushers’ captain and represented the team as a Homecoming candidate. She is headed to the University of San Diego to study computer engineering.
Phillips won four matches at No. 2 singles. Headed to Napa Valley College, she is an outstanding artist and was the Student of the Month for April representing the badminton team, Del Zompo said.
Aoki is in her first year of badminton.
“Shyriah has really picked up the game of badminton very quickly for us this year. She is very fast and gets to the bird very quickly,” the coach said. “She reminds me so much of another player we had here not too long ago, Theona Gascon, who won MELs her senior year and did not lose a match all season. I can see Shyriah falling into that category soon.”
Carr is in her second year of the sport and, like Phillips, a talented artist.
“If she is not playing badminton, she is always sketching something. Her specialty is anima pictures. I love looking at her artwork,” Del Zompo said. “I am so glad she will be back next year to help the young players continue to grow as badminton players.”
Diana Hernandez, a second-year player, will attend Napa Valley College next year in the hopes of one day becoming a doctor.
“She has been such a joy to have on the team and is always smiling,” Del Zompo said. “She is positive and works very hard at getting better every practice and every game.”
Napa will be represented today by seniors Abby Castrillo and Vanessa Perez in singles, and the doubles teams of senior Maria Cuevas and junior Andrea Quinones, and juniors Margaret Wigger and Chantelle Zerba.
“Maria was very hesitant to play singles as she’d not played on the singles ladder before, but she easily slid into the No. 2 spot and stayed there, doing very well the whole season,” said the Indians’ second-year coach, Lauren Turigliatto. “Abby I knew was going to be one of my top players based off of her play from last season and she didn’t disappoint, earning and maintaining her spot on top of the singles ladder despite juggling her many other extracurricular commitments throughout the season.
“Andrea and Maria, as a doubles team, I likewise figured to be a strong team since they had been a doubles team together since before I was their coach. Having that history and friendship between them, they constantly went out onto the court as a competitive team, but were always having fun, which was great. Margaret and Chantelle, on the other hand, were a first-time doubles team, yet they seemed to instantly click and work together well. Their own individual strengths compensated for the other person’s weaknesses. They won the most ladder matches out of all of my doubles teams, which really go to show how quickly they bonded as a team.”
Also attending, to help keep score and officiate and provide moral support will be junior teammates Ricardo Flores and Maria Zamarripa.
Napa coach passionate about sport
Turigliatto, a 2007 Napa High graduate, played not only four years of badminton for her alma mater but also basketball, softball and water polo.
“I just fell in love with the sport,” she said of badminton, “because it was different than all the other sports I’d ever played and it was new to me to play a sport where so much of it was independent, something I really responded to. It was never a popular sport even when I played it but it didn’t matter, and talking with (Napa High athletic director) Brian King prior to taking over as coach ... it seemed like a similar group of kids facing similar, stunted mindsets of their peers.”
Turigliatto — who works part time at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena — assisted the previous badminton coach before taking the helm.
“I love coaching, getting to hang out and work with the kids and try to encourage a love of the sport,” she said. “It’s a nice departure from my regular work. I enjoy being with the kids and hopefully they like having me as a coach, too. We have fun together, which I think is a huge part of promoting sports with kids this age. They can get overwhelmed by studies and what is expected of them to do to get into great colleges or work and it’s an excellent release for them. I appreciate being a part of that.
“The thing I really love about this team is that it is truly a team. Most people don’t realize that badminton, although it’s technically a team sport, is much more individual than other sports, needing players to take initiative to work alone or in pairs on things they need to personally improve. This group really expunged that concept and worked together to improve, all of them taking the time to help our new players to grow and gain the skills they needed to be better players. I am so proud of how this team came together and worked together gladly, which not only makes my job as a coach easier, but also really goes to show what good people they are and how much they care about the sport. In reality, it wasn’t just one person this year that stepped up and led the team, either in helping out or through their own self-improvement, but each and every player did that.”
Coach feels sport needs more respect
The Indians had only three new players this season, and no freshmen.
“That was a bit of a surprise,” Turigliatto said. “Unless we can get new players to join the sport, I am afraid of what this will mean for the team in future years. The sport really has to stop being viewed as an ‘easy’ sport, or a sport for ‘un-athletic’ kids. It’s not. It’s a tough sport when it’s played correctly. You have to have quick reactions and be able to think strategically without depending on your teammates to back you up if you guess wrong. I think if kids get that experience the first time they pick up a badminton racket, most often their first time being in P.E. classes in middle school, they will love it and they’ll be more eager to come out for the team once they come to high school.”
Napa High did not win any dual meets as a team this season, having to forfeit as many as four doubles matches most of the season. Turigliatto said that was difficult for two reasons.
“One, it’s difficult mentally as a team knowing that you’re going into a match at a disadvantage before you even step onto the court. Second, I really believe, after coaching this team with the majority of the same players for two years, that we are strongest in our doubles teams more so than in our singles play. So not being able to have a full roster to play in our potentially strongest matches was less than ideal as a competitive team.”
Turigliatto is trying to get her players to bring friends to practice and friends to games to get them thinking about trying the sport. But she thinks it will take more than that to expand the sport.
“With the level of indifference most people in our community view the sport, it’s not something that we as a team can solve on our own,” she said. “It shouldn’t be a challenge to promote the sport, but it is. They get the looks and sarcastic responses when they tell people they play it, and I get them when I tell people I coach it. It’s a wonderful sport and I wish people could realize it. These kids pour their hearts into every match they play and they deserve the kind of positive response other sports receive, whether they win or lose. They are a fantastic group of people, who play their sport well, with intelligence, skill, and always a positive attitude. It has been wonderful coaching this group of young people and getting to see their growth over the last two seasons.”
Turigliatto, who also coaches Napa High’s junior varsity boys water polo teams, finds a different dynamic in that sport.
“When I was in school and played water polo, it wasn’t a ‘popular’ sport, yet it has really taken off in recent years in part, I believe, to the growth of it in the community, such as summer programs and Junior Olympics, plus the fact that the USA water polo team won gold in the last summer Olympics,” she said. “Until badminton starts to find a place in this community, with open gyms where people can start to play on their own or club teams to garner interest and have badminton players have the opportunity to play year-round, we aren’t going to get bigger teams or more competitive players.”
Vintage hopes to rebound
Del Zompo, who is in her 10th year at Vintage’s helm, had a program that challenged perennial MEL champion Armijo for the title every year until American Canyon High opened in 2010-11 and Vintage’s last American Canyon residents graduated the next year. This year, the Crushers beat only Napa in league play.
“It has definitely been a couple of building years since we lost the American Canyon kids,” she said. “We have been really trying to build up the badminton program to the students in hopes of getting more players out there. Badminton is so much fun and it is a great way to come out and play with your friends. Some people think you don’t get a good enough workout, but I know every badminton player will disagree with them. It is a great workout. Every time you play, you get better. Our veteran players weren’t even able to hit the bird with consistency when they first started playing, and now they are at No. 1, 2 and 3 singles.”
Turigliatto doesn’t have any badminton players on this year’s team who play other sports, and is probably grateful for that. She said those who do often put more time into the other sport and don’t return to badminton.
“I think they find a team that offers something more competitive and personally more challenging than badminton, which is what some players are looking for. However, our team has many faithful and dedicated players, despite whether they ever decide to play other sports or not,” she said. “While they may not be competitive in the same way that, say, softball players are, they have their own level of competitiveness that they not only play at, but raise the bar of each season. They’re not out there playing because it’s expected of them, but because they love it.
“I think the level of play of kids who come out for the team could benefit from a more competitive mindset. But I think that those who are out for the team, with the love of the sport that they have, is much more important that a must-win attitude. Must-win attitudes have their place as a motivator and boost a sense of healthy competition if cultivated correctly. But I think once you lose that love of the game, it’s not sustainable anymore and no matter how successful your team becomes, it will peter out eventually if players forget why they joined the sport in the first place.”