As a crowd of underclassmen gather around Frank Field, freshman Sienna W. runs towards the badminton net and swings her racket with full force. Freshmen Bennett T. and Abbie Z. scramble to save the birdie from falling on the floor. The sidelines watch closely, with each head swinging left to right and watching the freshmen fight for the winning point in the championships. Freshman Sienna W. jumps towards the ball, swinging the racket straight to the floor, forcing the opposing team to scramble—and lose the culminating point. The audience roars in excitement, cheering at the finale of the first-ever Upper School Badminton Tournament.

From December 16 to December 19, over twenty teams came to Frank Field to participate in the Badminton Tournament. It all started when Physical Education Teacher Coach Allison Clark ’07 noticed the ninth graders’ eager passion to play badminton. “Ninth graders love playing badminton; they’re here [on Frank Field] every day…so then I [thought] we should do a badminton tournament.”

Playing lunchtime badminton has been a tradition for the freshmen class for over three years. Third-place team member Bianca P. ’28 shared the freshmen’s eagerness to join the tournament. “We play a lot at lunch for fun, so we just wanted to play [in the tournament] for fun,” she said.

“We are obviously [using] the wrong rules, but we’ve had a lot of experience playing against each other,” Sienna W. ’28 said.

Over the course of four lunches, teams battled on the outdoor courts, with some gaining long winning streaks or walking off of the field after a loss.

Upper School students, as well as Upper School teachers, participated in the tournament. Representing the Art Department, Upper School Art Teachers Mr. David Prince and Ms. Shannon Keller paired up as “The Artletes” to participate in the tournament. At first, Ms. Keller initially believed more teachers would join the tournament. “I signed up thinking there would be other teachers that we would play…Other teachers should have been playing because I really wasn’t expecting to play against students,” she said.

Sophomore Phoebe M. is a student in Ms. Keller’s Painting and Drawing II class and attended every game to support her teacher. “[Ms. Keller] is a really great addition to this game, she adds a lot of spirit, she’s very aggressive… She’s been talking about it in my art class a lot, so I feel very involved in her team,” she said.

Being the only participating teacher pair did not hold the Artletes back; the duo continued to persevere and settled with fourth place after an intense battle against freshmen players Bianca P. and Claire H., the student duo who won with a score of 21–12. 

While preparing for games, some teams coordinated matching outfits to embrace their team spirit. The Artletes came with matching sweatbands, and first-place winners Giselle R. ’28 and Sienna W. ’28 arrived in matching green and pink shorts along with a black top. Giselle reflected before her final game and said, “If we lose, we lose in style.”

The tournament attracted a large audience during the final rounds. Freshman Ela K. came to the championships to support her fellow peers. “I love how most of the finalists are freshmen. I think it really showcases how great as a grade we are,” she said.

As Director of Upper School Dr. Melanie Arias handed the winning team a trophy to end the tournament, Upper School students cheered, commemorating the tournament. Coach Allison assured that the badminton tournament would become a tradition among holding additional Upper School tournaments with different sports. “We’re going to try to do some other [tournaments]…” Coach Allison said. “We’ll definitely make this regular, as long as people keep coming out and playing.”