On the weekend of February 17-18th, the Ottawa Gee Gees badminton team was at York University in Toronto competing in the last regular season tournaments of the 2000-2001 season. Our competition for this tournament included Ryerson, Toronto, Queen's, and the host school York. We have defeated each of these teams ealier this season and our goal for the weekend was to win all of our ties, finish 1st in the East, and earn a bye into the Semi-Finals in the playoffs. Going into the final tournament, Ottawa (10 points) was ranked #2 in Ontario behind #1 ranked Western (13 points), but was closely chased by #3 ranked York (9 points), #4 ranked Queens (8 points), and #5 ranked Toronto (7 points).
We started the weekend by playing Ryerson. Previously, Ryerson had been extremely outmatched by us, and we expected nothing different this time around. As expected, we were able to dispose the weakest of the Toronto-based teams 11-0.
Our next opponent was Toronto. Strong play by everyone allowed us to beat this playoff-bound team quite handily 9-2.
Sunday was a very important day for the Ottawa team. The results from Sunday would determine who finishes 1st in the east. Sunday morning we played #4 ranked Queen's. Our team's improvement during the season was evident as we were able to defeat Queen's quite easily 7-4.
Finally, we had to play the host team, York. Defeating the #3 ranked team would allow us to fulfill our regular season goal, finishing 1st in the OUA east. Unfortunately, York's top women's player suffered a season ending injury on Saturday. This unfortunate incident allowed our ladies to dominate, winning all 5 of their matches. In the end we were able to defeat our closest rivals in the east 8-3.
Gee Gees badminton players have been training hard in an effort to develop as many team members as possible, and at the same time to peak when it counts - at the championships. The team is technically and strategically very strong, however added focus was placed on the physical and mental training since the new-year. The results of extra physical training were specifically evident with 4th year veteran Gary Wan during a big win in #2 men's singles against York. The match was 2 hours long with high intensity on both sides and many long rallies. Gary came out the big winner holding on in the third game in extra points 10-15, 15-7, 17-14.
Overall the entire Gee Gees team played very well. On the Ladies side, Isabelle Proulx easily defeated all of her opponents at #3 Ladies Singles. Anh Chu & Jenny Kue were undefeated at #1 Ladies Doubles. Isabelle also played very well at #2 Ladies Doubles with Tania Perron as they too were undefeated this weekend.
Ottawa's men were also very successful. Gary Wan won all his matches at #2 singles. Gary's doubles partner, Lakshman Gunaratman also played very well as they were able to defeat all their opponents at #1 Men's Doubles. Jeff Wolak & Thomas Lam continued their strong play by winning all of their matches at #2 Men's Doubles. When paired together at #2 Men's Doubles, Jeff & Thomas have been unbeaten all year long.
Gee Gee badminton have also added extra mental training to the program under the direction of Paul Seely, an NCCP Level 4 badminton coach from Barbados who is currently completing his masters in sport psychology at University of Ottawa. Paul had a tremendous positive calming influence during the weekend and gave players a heightened level of confidence. His assistance to the Gee Gee coaching team is much appreciated.
The depth of the Gee Gees has allowed Ottawa to field 12 men and 12 women during the competitions this year despite only being allowed to place 6 men and 6 women on each roster. This is a much higher participation ratio than all of the other teams who field an averaged of only 6 to 8 players per year. The Gee Gee coaching team has tried very hard to give tournament experience to as many players as possible, while achieving a very successful win-loss record.
We now have the luxury of watching and waiting to see who we will play in the semi-finals. The playoffs will be held on March 2nd & 3rd at the University of Toronto. In the semi-finals the Gee Gees will play the winner of #3 York & #6 Waterloo. The team is looking forward to the playoffs and will have to continue playing quality badminton if we want to come home with the gold.
