2017 BNS Welcome
Hello to all Nova Scotia Badminton Players / Parents / Coaches / Officials,
I hope that you have all had an excellent summer relaxing and unwinding and are now getting ready and looking forward to the upcoming season with lots of enthusiasm ???? I have just finished watching all of the finals from the BWF World Championships that were being held in Glasgow last week, and if you ever want to see a series of finals that exemplify the best elements of our sport, then watch those and encourage others to watch them too … The womens singles match was probably one of the best matches I have seen.
And so onto business. As always my welcome email is going to be a long one packed full of information about what has been happening over the summer, because even though you are resting, the board is always working hard to try and bring you the best experience for badminton that we are able to offer as well as trying to grow the sport.
Badminton Canada AGM
This year I was able to attend the Badminton Canada AGM that was held in Ottawa, and for the first time, there were representatives from EVERY province attending the meeting. This is vital so that EVERY voice is heard from all areas of the country and to enable the board to make decisions that are the best for all. The meeting was held over 3 days with 2 days devoted to workshops on the strategic plan for Badminton Canada, and then the last day for the actual AGM. At the AGM a whole new board was selected, and you may recognize a couple of names in there for former east coasters!
The new board is:
President – Anil Kaul (BC)
Vice President – Ken Poole (AB)
Treasurer – Jamie Dawson (MB)
Secretary – Susan Storey (ON)
Member at Large – Kevin Willington (ON)
Member at Large – Chris White (MB even though he says he will always be NS!)
Member at Large – Erik Nilsson (BC)
Member at Large – Phil Bourret (QC)
The new board has a vast level of badminton playing experience as well as bringing some key business skills to the table, and I am looking forward to seeing what they will be working on to further the sport within the country.
One of the other things that was discussed and voted on by the members was the removal of the special Junior Coaching rules that we currently have in place. A motion was put forward by the members to align our rules with the BWF which would mean that juniors would be allowed to have coaching at the 11 interval and also between points too. The motion passed 9-1 and this has been now ratified by the board. This means that for all tournaments in Canada at any level, the coaching for athletes is the same, at any break in play.
BNS Board
At the last AGM we welcome some new members to the board. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for coming forward and volunteering their time and helping us move Badminton forward within the province. The new members that joined are:
Director of Finance – Jordan Goodine
Director of Senior Tournaments – Drew Hubley
Director of Coaches & Officials – Pat Thompson
Director of Masters – Gerry Wist
They have already been busy over the summer getting up to speed on their new portfolios and starting the work to get things ready for the new season. Once again my thanks for stepping forwards and reducing the average age of the board significantly! ????
Cheryl Newman has also stepped down from the board after many years of service. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for all her efforts over the years in helping grow badminton in the HRM region as the director at large. Hope to still see you at some of the tournaments.
At the beginning of August we sent out an email asking for volunteers to fill the remaining positions on the board. Many thanks to everyone who responded and volunteered for a position, and if you were not successful this time, I hope that you continue to want to help out and can maybe join the board at the next round of elections.
So congratulations the following new board members:
Vice President – Kerry Lynch
Director at large HRM – Adele Pellerin
Director at large South Shore – Nick Driscoll
As these positions were filled mid-term, they will continue until the next normal election cycle at the AGM. So congratulations to the successful applicants, and I look forward to working with you over the coming badminton season.
Strategic Planning Meeting
Every year the board holds a one day meeting to discuss the strategy for the coming year. As always, we will work to continue to grow the grass roots level of the sport which is where we must have a lot of focus as well as trying to develop the high-performance groups around the province. Alongside this we have to ensure that we are able to offer fun and competitive tournaments throughout the year.
The good news is that the membership fees for this coming year have remained the same. To confirm:
– National – $65
– Provincial – $40
– Single Tournament – $20 (if you play in a second tournament, you will need to pay the $20 difference to provincial)
The board also voted on the goggle policy. After lots of discussion, the board decided that the enforcement of the goggle policy will be removed. This decision was made due to the liability placed upon Badminton Nova Scotia, and the issues enforcing the policy at the various level of events that we hold. The board does however STRONGLY recommend that players, junior AND senior wear eye protection during play.
Tournaments
Another year and another set of fantastic tournaments are being planned. They fall into three categories:
– Badminton Nova Scotia Club Series. These are fun NON ranking tournaments held in Fall, winter and spring with just level doubles and mixed doubles. They are always great fun, but remember to register early as there is an entry limit of 60 people!
– Badminton Nova Scotia Provincial Series. These are PROVINCIAL ranking tournaments that are held at various locations across the province. This year, they will be Bridgewater, Antigonish, Truro, Sackville and maybe one more TBD (we are still working on that!). The ranking points earned from these tournaments will be used to rank for the junior and senior provincial championships.
– Yonex Badminton Atlantic Series. These are ATLANTIC ranking tournaments that are held currently in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. There will be 2 in each province and then the end of season championships that are in Moncton this year. Ranking points from the 4 tournaments plus last years championship will be used to rank for the season championships.
The first tournament of the year was already held in Halifax and was a Round Robin tournament. This had 56 entries, and there were some very competitive matches considering it’s still very early in the season, which bodes well for some high level badminton being played in the coming tournaments.
The full list of tournaments for the coming year is as follows:
PROVINCIAL – Oct 13-14 – Bridgewater Open – Bridgewater
ATLANTIC – Oct 20-22 – Scott Open – Canada Games Centre Halifax
ATLANTIC – Nov 10-12 – East Coast Open – University of Moncton
NATIONAL – Dec 8-10 – Senior Elite Series – University of Moncton
NATIONAL – Dec 8-10 – Junior Elite Series – University of Moncton
ATLANTIC – Jan 5-6 – Guy Martin – University of Moncton
ATLANTIC – Jan 26-28 – Longard – Canada Games Centre Halifax
CLUB – Feb 10-11 – Dead of Winter RR – Armbrae Academy, Halifax
CLUB – Mar 24-25 – Swing into Spring RR – Armbrae Academy, Halifax
PROVINCIAL – April 6-8 – Senior / Junior Provincials – Dalhousie Ag College, Truro
ATLANTIC – April 27-29 – Atlantic Series Championship – University of Moncton
There will also be a PROVINCIAL series tournament in Antigonish, Truro and Sackville, but dates and locations are yet to be determined. When they are finalized, the BNS website will be updated and emails sent to all the members.
The junior age categories are also going to be changing this year. In previous years we have tried various cut off dates to try and align with Badminton Canada Elite series and also the BWF, but none have worked satisfactorily to help the development of our players in Nova Scotia. Therefore, in conjunction with New Brunswick and the Atlantic Series tournaments, this year Nova Scotia Provincial tournaments will adopt a new age limit rule. The age group of the player will be based on the age of the player on the LAST DAY of the tournament. For example, with the Bridgewater tournament, the players age on OCTOBER 14th will be used. So, if a player is aged 12 years old on that day, they will be able to play in U13. We are trialing this in the Atlantic provinces this year, and if it’s successful we will be creating a motion for the Badminton Canada Competitions board to adopt this for all Canadian National tournaments too. In our opinion this makes it fairer for everyone as they will always be playing with people of the same age group rather than being forced up to an older age group sometimes nearly a year early. If, however you still want to play up a category, that option is always open to you. If there are any questions, then please do not hesitate to contact Jennifer our executive
director at [email protected] and she will be happy to answer any questions.
Please try and attend as many as you can so that we can make them as competitive as possible and increase the fun ????
Officials
The officials community within Badminton Atlantic continues to grow with new umpires coming online in New Brunswick as well as Nova Scotia officials continuing to develop and get recognition across Canada.
This last year, Kim Beals was invited to attend the Junior Nationals that were being held in Moncton, and she did such a great job that it was recommended that she be put forward for her National Assessment this year. This was duly done, and we are currently awaiting confirmation of the acceptance, but good luck in advance for your National Assessment Kim ????
As some of you may be aware, I was selected for assessment for Pan American assessment this year at the PanAms in Toronto. Unfortunately, I had to leave early due to an emergency at home, so I was not able to complete the training. I hope to get another chance in the future to progress my umpiring skills and career.
With all that talk about umpiring, I am sure you are all now eager to become an official …. Well you’re in luck! A regional umpiring course is being held at the Scott Open this year on Saturday October 21st from 8:30 until 4:30. This is the first step on the umpiring ladder and will give you the basics for how to umpire a match. All ages are welcome from 14 years up. If you are interested, please contact Pat Thompson at [email protected] so that we know how many people are coming. There will be a minimal cost to cover the cost of the binders, and this will be confirmed closer to the date.
One thing to note is that if you are going to be taking the umpiring course you will NOT be able to play in the tournament.
In order to help develop existing umpires, I will also be running an umpires seminar on the Friday night. So if you are an existing umpire you are more than welcome to attend. We will be discussing changes to rules and regulations as well as having a question and answer session and a closer look at a few scenarios. This will be great for any umpire who has received the training for regional or above who wants to bring themselves back up so speed. Do not worry if you have not umpired in a while, everyone is welcome! If you are planning on attending, please contact Mark Briscombe ([email protected]) as there is some pre-work that will be sent out to you (yes you get some homework!!)
On behalf of Badminton Nova Scotia (and all of the players!), I would like to thank all of the people who have taken the time to pick up the clipboard and become an umpire. Having an umpire on court and in the event, always makes it a better place to be (even if you don’t agree with them 100% of the time!) So next time you see an umpire, buy them a Tims ????
Coaching
In the last newsletter, I mentioned the fact that we now have 7 people spread across the province who are now able to conduct coaching courses for Competition Introduction Regional and Competition Introduction Provincial. In the last year they have run courses in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland & Labrador. This is another essential part in growing the sport of badminton, and I would like to thank Gary MacDougall, Robert Proctor, Sheri Parks, Elliott Beals, Pat Thompson and John Gillam for their help in creating more coaches in the region.
Sheri Parks was also selected to go to Toronto in January this year to attend the Learner Facilitator training for the Competition Development course (Old NCCP Level 3). This is a big deal for Atlantic Canada, as previously, if we wanted to run a course of this level we would have had to fly someone in from Ontario or Alberta which made the costs prohibitive. For the first time, we are now able to offer coaching courses up to a NATIONAL level within Badminton Atlantic.
So now we have all these Learner Facilitators for the courses, the next step is to run lots of courses for you and anyone else who is interested to attend. If you are interested in becoming a coach, then please get in touch with Pat Thompson ([email protected]) and he will add you to the waiting list and when a course becomes available he will be in touch.
Website
Drew Hubley has been working hard all summer revamping the Badminton Nova Scotia website. This website is now up and running and I would like to pass on my thanks to Drew for all his efforts over the summer in getting this together, it was a lot of long hours getting things formatted and looking good as well as updating some of the content.
Team Canada
As some of you may be aware, our very own Miklos Kanyasi has been having an excellent year. He competed in the U23 Junior Nationals in Moncton this year and managed to get to the U19 Mens Singles final of the where he played Aaron Zhao. Unfortunately, he was not able to beat Aaron, but he still had a fantastic tournament.
As a result of his placing in the Junior Nationals (along with other results from Junior Elites), Miklos was selected to be part of Team Canada for the Pan American Team championships as well as the individual championship. Team Canada came second, losing to the USA in the finals, and Miklos was able to get through to round 2 before he was knocked out.
And his year has not ended there! Miklos was contacted in early August to let him know that he has been selected for Team Canada for the BWF WORLD Juniors that are being held in Yogyakarta in Indonesia from Oct 16th to Oct 22nd. This is a fantastic opportunity and one that I know he will enjoy.
Miklos does have a gofundme page set up for this https://www.gofundme.com/mikkanyasi as he has to pay for his flight and accommodations, so if you are able to help please go ahead and click the link!
These opportunities are all down to the hard work that Miklos has put in for training over the past few years as well as the assistance and dedication of his coach Gary MacDougall. Gary has been working with Miklos many nights a week helping him to grow in the sport and become the player he is today. Thanks Gary for your dedication.
So good luck to Miklos in October, and be assured that even with the time zone difference there will be plenty of people watching you and cheering you on from Nova Scotia and the Atlantic provinces.
Provincial Team
The Badminton Nova Scotia High Performance Provincial Team Program is entering its fifth year and looking forward to continuing the success of last year where 3 National Medals were earned. (Silver U19 MS, Bronze U15 MD, Bronze U23 WD) Robert Proctor Director of Junior Development will again lead the Provincial Team as head coach with Pat Thompson returning as an associate coach/senior athlete. The Provincial Team Program is fortunate to have experienced coaches Gary MacDougall (Canada Games 2011) and Elliott Beals (Canada Games 2007 & 2019) become associate coaches
with the program.
As reflected in the Badminton Nova Scotia High Performance Plan, the focus of the Provincial Team Program is to support and develop athletes to achieve success at the Atlantic and National levels with a focus on results at annual Badminton Canada Elite Series and National Championships. While the provincial team program launched in 2013 with the focus of assisting athletes with progressing through the Long Term Athlete Development stages as outlined by Badminton Canada, this season will see each athlete recommit and invest themselves in advancing through the Learning to Train, Training to Train, Learning to Compete and Training to Compete stages of development.
REMINDER TO ALL ATHLETES, to be eligible for financial assistance or sanction/selection to represent Badminton Nova Scotia at Atlantic, National or International events (camps/competitions) the athlete MUST be a member in good standing with the High Performance Provincial Team Program at least 12 months prior to the funding, sanction or selection deadlines. For those athletes interested in being considered for selection to the 2019 Canada Games Team you MUST be a member in good standing with the Provincial Team Program for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons.
If you have any questions about the High Performance Provincial Team Program, please contact Robert Proctor ([email protected])
So as promised, a nice long email to start off the season! This year is going to be a great year of competition and tournaments from the local level round robins right up to the National Senior / Junior Elites and I hope that you all continue to love, play and promote the sport in your communities in whatever way you can. Without you, there would be no badminton in the province, so from the board, thank you for picking up the rackets and playing.
I look forward to seeing you all on court around the province soon.
Kindest regards
Mark Briscombe
President – Badminton Nova Scotia