Sport: Year 8 Boys Badminton 

Our Year 8 Badminton Boys can call themselves the best Country team in Victoria, after finishing 5th at theSchool Sport Victoria State Championships at the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre in Albert Park on Friday 13th September.

They swept Gippsland Region champions Sale College 6-0 (126-67), finished 1-2 overall, and were the only Country school to win a match on the day against the Metro powerhouses.

We commend our boys who, completely new to the sport this year, committed many Lunchtimes to training in our Sport Stadium over a period of months. Their commitment to training was something that even veteran P.E staff had never seen before.

Special mention to Clarence Lampa who has now been to State Championships this year in 3 different sports - Lawn Bowls, Cross Country and Badminton.

Zach Wills and Jeremy Bagley have been twice - also being in the Lawn Bowls team. Jeremy went to State in 2023 for Javelin, and may well have again this year too- he was favourite to win again at this Thursday's Hume Athletics, but is holidaying overseas.

It’s now 3 years in a row we’ve had a Badminton team make it to State. In 2023 it was our Year 8 girls (Isabelle Christison, Alana Hepburn, Lillian Hooper, Angela Keenan, Milly O'Kane, and Casey Sheppard), and the year prior, those same girls made it as Year 7s.

Big thank you to Alex Johnson for driving the boys down, and for spending significant time coaching the boys at Lunchtimes. Alex himself was a whisker away from making it to State for Badminton when a student here in the 2000s (see pic below).

Huge thank you also to Michelle Wilson for lending her car to bring costs down for the players - the 2nd time she has done this for us in recent months.

A rundown of the day from Coach Alex Johnson::

"The alarms were set for 5am but some were up at 4:30. The excitement of travelling down the Hume to a Badminton State Final too much for some. We managed to get away on time, although still a little bleary eyed. A couple of the dads thought that was comical, 4:30am starts being the norm in their respective lines of work. Thanks to Michelle Wilson, we were travelling in style with heated seats, individual phone chargers and even a sunroof! Lachie sat up front and oversaw the tunes (all thanks to his dad’s premium Spotify account). The great tunes only interrupted by his mum taking over the playlist to wake up Lachie’s brothers, which is standard practice in the Downing household apparently! We had a clear run down the Hume and got to MSAC with plenty of time for the boys to warm up and prepare for their first match.

MATCH 1 - WHS v EAST DONCASTER SC 

The previous State Champions, East Doncaster SC were far too strong for our Wang High boys, eventually winning 6 games to 0. I’d like to say our boys put up a great fight but unfortunately East Doncaster SC were a class above and it was no surprise to find out that they were the eventual 2024 Year 8 Boys Badminton State Champions.

MATCH 2 - WHS v SALE COLLEGE

By the time our second match was ready to begin, our number 2 seed Hugh Spring was battling a serious head cold and was ‘touch and go’ whether he would even play. Hugh showed great resilience and perseverance and ended up beating his opponent 21-9. In what was touted as the ‘battle of the country’, our boys ‘swept’ Sale College, winning the match 6 games to 0 and setting up a ‘win and you’re in’ (semi-finals) scenario against Alamanda K-9 College.

MATCH 3 - WHS v ALAMANDA K-9 COLLEGE

Following his heroics against Sale, Hugh decided it best to sit out our final match and ended up having a sleep in the medical room! This allowed Zach Wills, our designated doubles player to step up and take Hugh’s place. Unlike our first match, this was a great contest with the final score not reflecting the quality and competitiveness of the games. Alamanda were too polished and end up winning 6 games to 0.

There was a clear divide between schools from the wider Melbourne metro area and the regional schools. The Wangaratta High School would however go on to be the ‘best of the country’, producing the best win/loss record of the regional schools in attendance. This is an amazing effort and a testament to the level of preparation and enthusiasm that the boys showed in the weeks and months leading up to this."

Jud Mullins

Sport Coordinator