At this moment there are 4 institutions that that have post-secondary badminton programs. There are 3 Edmonton schools (King’s University College, NAIT, and Concordia) as well as Olds College in central Alberta. Olds College joined this year and already has a very competitive team. Each school typically has 5/6 girls and 5/6 guys on the team, so there is plenty of opportunity to get involved. Hopefully down the road the league continues to expand and involve more institutions.
Many of the coaches of each institution have been involved coaching/playing in some aspect for many years now. Each one of them have seen athletes come to their school, get an education, have lasting memories, and friends for the rest of their lives. When they ask many of their athletes how they enjoyed their experiences playing Badminton at the collegiate level, many of them say, “it was the best times of their lives and they improved so much”.
Aside from league play, there are tremendous opportunities for students to join a post-secondary badminton program. For example, just this year King’s, NAIT and Concordia badminton teams team travelled to Hawaii to compete in the 2015 Honolulu Badminton Open. Each team does their own fundraising to be able to undertake such opportunities.
If you are a coach please pass the info below on to your respective athletes and if you are an athlete please don’t miss out on this incredible experience/opportunity, if Badminton is your sport! Also the tournaments for Semester 2 are listed below as well in case you want to check out the action!
College Contacts:
Olds College - Mary Smith – msmith@oldscollege.ca - 403 507 7793
Kings University College - Naeem Haque – naeem.haque@kingsu.ca - 780 446 2637
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology - Jordan Richey – jrichey@nait.ca - 780 471 7579
Concordia University College of Alberta - Kevin MacAlpine kevin_macalpine@concordia.ab.ca - 780 238 6752
2014-15 ACAC Events
Tournament #1 - January 24 – 25, 2015 – Olds College
Tournament #2 - February 6 – 8, 2015 – NAIT/Royal Glenora College
ACAC Championships - February 21, 2015 – Concordia College