H-ton Girls’ Badminton Makes Strides

The Huntington High School varsity girls’ badminton team continued to make strides in its second season. The goal is to develop the Blue Devil program into one of Suffolk’s best.

Coached by Alex Nelson, the team was led by sophomore Mia Kaufman (No. 1 singles), sophomore Anis Oyuela (No. 2 singles), junior Nahomy Villanueva (No. 3 singles), senior Megan Lewis and junior Sophia Weiss in No. 1 doubles and seniors Mayra Rivera and Dianna Portillo in No. 2 doubles.

“Mia had an amazing season,” Nelson said. “Her first year she only won a few matches, but this year she caught fire towards the end of the season winning six matches in a row with one being a win in the second round of the county tournament. We hope that fire continues into next year.”

Oyuela was also strong. “Anis had a great second season as well,” Nelson said. “She quadrupled her wins from last season and won her first round match in the county tournament.”

The coach said Villanueva “did an amazing job” in the third singles position. “Nahomy was in a lot of close matches this season, including her match in the county tournament,” the coach said. “She will look to finish strong as a senior next year.”

Lewis and Weiss were an effective doubles pairing. “Megan had another incredible season,” Nelson said. “Megan and Sophia have unmatched chemistry as a doubles team, which helped get them to the county tournament. The team is severely going to miss Megan’s talent, skills and leadership, especially Sophia. Losing her doubles partner of two years, Sophia might move to singles.”

Huntington was also fortunate to have a quality team in the second doubles position. “Mayra and Dianna had another amazing season,” Nelson said. “Last year, Dianna served as a fill in player for doubles and singles, but this year, with our improvement in commitment and numbers, Dianna came up really big for the team and was able to commit to doubles full time with Mayra. Mayra, a veteran of doubles, played with Dianna for the first time this season as doubles partners. Mayra did an incredible job playing with a new partner, they were a very tough team, had a lot of close matches throughout the season and did a great job in the county tournament.”

Nelson was able to fill out his lineup for every match, which was an improvement from the team’s first year. “We were always moving players around last season with kids not showing,” he said. “This season we never did!”

The coach hopes to be able to introduce an off-season one day per week intramural training program. He intends to recruit new members during physical education classes.

“I am extremely proud of the progress this team has made in its second year,” Nelson said. “We are still young as a program and we are competing against teams that have been around for decades. I am so proud of the girls on this team showing up each and every day to compete. They never get down on themselves, they never get discouraged, they never give up. They keep moving forward and it’s something I greatly admire about them.”

Nelson played badminton himself while a student at Smithtown East High School. His goal is to develop Huntington’s team so it can compete against the best in the county.

“We will be strong next year; potentially the strongest we’ve ever been,” Nelson said. “We are losing a lot strong athletes this year, but next year we have a lot of players who will be returning for a third year. They will have a lot more experience on their side and it should help us win our first match next year, possibly more.”