There will be a different type of birdie watching taking place in Mukilteo this weekend.
Some of the best badminton players in the country are converging on Snohomish County beginning Friday, as the USA Badminton Adult National Championships take place this weekend at the Harbour Pointe Badminton Club in Mukilteo.
Therefore, locals are receiving a rare opportunity to see first-hand what badminton looks like when played at the elite level.
“I’m not sure when the last time nationals were ever held in the Northwest,” Harbour Pointe club manager Curtis Stensland said. “It’s definitely a first for us. We’ve hosted some other big events at the junior level, but this is our first big open adult tournament here. It’s exciting. The field will be pretty small, but some of the stronger players in the country will be playing, so it should be exciting to watch.”
Adult Nationals begin Friday and continues through Sunday, when the national champions in men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles are crowned.
The action is going down at Harbour Pointe, a club that officially opened in December of 2016. Harbour Pointe was born out of the success of the Bellevue Badminton Club, which began as a way for friends to get together to play badminton and grew into a membership of about 1,200. The decision was made to expand into Mukilteo, where the Harbour Pointe Badminton Club was founded. Harbour Pointe features 12 courts that have 30-foot ceilings to accommodate game play, as birdies can be lifted high into the air for defensive purposes. Harbour Pointe now has nearly 500 members of its own.
“When we first started the club in Bellevue it was in a warehouse and was done on the honor system,” Stensland said. “We handed out keycards with 24-hour access, and if you brought a guest you just shoved $10 under the door. Now we have two locations and we’re hosting nationals at a world-class facility. The sport is doing really well in the area.”
This isn’t the first time Harbour Pointe has hosted a major tournament. Indeed, Harbour Pointe’s first big event took place prior to the official opening as the club hosted the 2016 USA Badminton Junior National Championships that summer. The club also hosted the 2017 USA Badminton Junior International Trials.
Having successfully hosted significant junior events, it was natural for Harbour Pointe to make a play for Adult Nationals.
“We put in a bid to USA Badminton, and Tammy Dunn from the Snohomish County Sports Commission helped a lot,” Stensland said. “We’ve run tournaments before and it’s a great building for it. I know they try to move it around from club to club and around the country. We’re a newer club, so that might have helped.”
USA Badminton CEO Jeff Dyrek, reached by email, listed four reasons why Harbour Pointe was chosen as the host for Adult Nationals. They were:
— A history of hosting USA Badminton events.
— Strong support from the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau, as headed by Dunn.
— This being a region in the country where badminton is growing and showing strong support for the sport.
— A good relationship with the club.
As for the event itself, Stensland said there were about 40 players expected to take part in the tournament. Among them is Jamie Subandhi of Westminster, California, who played mixed doubles for the USA at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Subandhi is expected to compete in women’s singles and doubles.
It won’t be just American citizens competing at Adult Nationals. The event is open to any players who have resided in the country for at least a year, thus opening the draw to some international players and raising the level of competition. A handful of local athletes are also expected to test their hands against the elite field.
“The competition level will be pretty high,” Stensland said. “We’ll have some locals participating who aren’t necessarily playing at the highest level, but this is a chance for them to play against the highest-level players.
“It’s a very three-dimensional game,” Stensland added. “There’s lots of depth and lots of height. There’s a lot of different ways to win, a lot of different strategies you can use. You don’t have to be 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds to be successful, you can be 5-7 — the current women’s world champion is 5-1. There are many ways to win a game, which makes it exciting.”
Come Friday, the residents of Snohomish County will be able to see that for themselves.
If you have an idea for a community sports story, email Nick Patterson at npatterson@heraldnet.com.
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