Shuttlecocks! Badminton booted from the PAC

The badminton players on campus are up in arms over what they believe is adminstration keeping them from half the playable surfaces at the UW athletic centres.

We haven’t heard anything to confirm the details, but the word goes that the school is planning on replacing all the floors in the PAC gymnasiums. And when they do, they won’t be painting the lines for regulation badminton play.

Adminstration is saying they don’t want to have overlap – since there are already badminton lines in the CIF gyms. The UW Badminton Club and varisty players are crying foul, as the move means they can only play badminton at CIF.

The UW Badminton Club is probably the largest sports club on campus – over 300 members in the fall term.

The problem isn’t so much that the players will only be able to play at CIF – there are a couple badminton tournaments for 100 players each term, and the courts in CIF won’t match regulations for wall distance and ceiling height (or something), meaning UW can never host an OUA event.

SLC asks Athletics, what’s up with that? Where’s the love for badminton? Some of the varsity players are working on a petition, and even had their offer to share the costs of line painting turned down. We wish them all the luck. You don’t want to mess with angry badminton players with shuttlecocks and rage.