Are you smitten with badminton?

Apparently many East students are, as the turn out at the second meeting of the school’s first ever badminton club reached a total of 50 students.

Subsequent to playing badminton in physical education classes at East over the past four years, Lizz Kramer (’09) and Caroline Babula (’09) decided to start a club through which students could play the sport year round.

“Badminton is the only sport I’m good at and I love it,” said Kramer, who helped found the club because she wanted to be able to play more competitive badminton outside of gym class.

Among the students who turned out for the badminton club’s second meeting were long-time badminton players Avani Patel (’09) and Radhika Patel (’09).  The Patel’s, who have played badminton with family and friends since they were young, came to the meeting in order to play against different people than normal.

Although the Patel’s furnished an interest for badminton before attending East, the majority of the students who participated in the club’s games only recently developed an interest while playing during gym class.

Kramer and Babula hope to arrange a badminton competition against Cherry Hill West over the course of the year.  In the mean time, the two founders of the club will be arranging tournaments among the members at East.

“The tournaments will be split into competitive and not so competitive because some people aren’t as competitive about badminton as others,” said Kramer.

Students can attend meetings at any time and do not need to have any skill level in order to join in the club’s many games.