Best of 2008

#1 posting 5.23.2008
badminton news & information

YEAR IN REVIEW/AWARDS
Best National Anthem---the only national anthem I heard during the year---at Eden Prairie when they faced St. Paul Johnson.

Best photo angle to watch a match: The top of the bleachers at Harding. Easier to get to than the Highland Park top bleachers.

Best Uniforms: Edison

Best Tour Guide---me. I helped Eden Prairie find the right door to enter at Edison.

Best 6-1 team match: Central vs Como Park at Central. Five of the matches went the distance. Four went to Central.

Best 4-3 team match: Harding vs Johnson at Harding. The doubles had tight scores.

Best individual match: Katie Vohnoutka (Eden Prairie) vs Khoua Xiong (Highland Park) at Eden Prairie. It was Vohnoutka's closest match of the year. Xiong actually outpointed her 55-52. 21-17, 12-21, 21-18.

Best Smash: Katie Vohnoutka, Eden Pairie

Best Soft Drive/cut shot: Khoua Xiong, Highland Park

Best move: Making the finals of the doubles and singles at the state tournament the spotlight event. It gave everyone a chance to see and cheer on their favorites. It gave each event a classy finish.

Worst trip---going to Minneapolis North to watch the Polars and Southwest. Southwest wasn't there. They were on vacation.

Worst trip part II--getting delayed on the "unweave the weave" and missing the opening game of the semis at the state individual tournament.

NEXT YEAR:
As far as next years favorites
Stephanie King of Harding is the only player returning from the top four individuals. She finished 4th this year. Others to watch include Olamide Fadahunsi of Johnson, Desiree Garcia of South, and Elena Kronmiller of Highland.

Da Chang and Doua Thao of Central may be the favorites in the doubles category. They weren't able to compete this year due to a California trip during the state tournament.

As far as the team title goes....Harding has won the last three years. They took a hit with graduation in 2008. It should be an interesting 2009.

FUTURE PLANS
In the next few months I will be moving to a full fledged website. I will have more on that when the site is up and running.

Also I will have more of the photos I took during the year up. I am going to work with someone to put them online and then folks can purchase their favorites.

Next up: When news breaks and when the site is up