The first ever badminton club has started at Pace. Global history teacher, Mr. Lin started this club with freshman, Jay Ijaz.

This club was first established in November when Ijaz was first interested in badminton at this school. Ijaz states, “I have loved badminton my whole life and during the club fair, when I was looking for a badminton club I didn’t realize they didn’t have one. That’s what encouraged me to start this club.”

Many schools in New York CIty have badminton as an official sport. It is a PSAL sport in some schools.

The badminton club was first introduced during Pace’s club fair. The club had about 100 sign-ups but only a few people actually showed up to the first event.

“There is no minimum capacity in this club. Anyone can stop by on Friday after school to check it out”, Mr. Lin said. The club is open to try and be exposed to a new sport. “I created this club so students can be exposed to the sport badminton and hopefully fall in love with this sport.”

Badminton is not a common sport within Pace’s community. Basketball and volleyball are two of the main PSAL sports here at Pace. Mr. Lin hopes to have enough students become interested in badminton, therefore one day it can become a PSAL sport.

Mr. Lin said, “Our club members have different skill levels to play against others from different schools.” Due to the unfamiliarity of the sport at Pace, it will first start off as a club. As more people join and become interested in the sport, hopefully it could expand to become a PSAL sport in the near future.

Freshman, Ke Ying Chang said, “Many of my friends were interested in badminton when they came to the school but didn’t know how to play since there was no club.” Currently, Chang’s friends are in the club and showing off their tremendous skills. At Pace, many students have a passion for badminton but struggle to express themselves.