Despite a rough 6–24 loss to Gunn, the Los Altos High School varsity badminton team celebrated its graduating class on senior night Thursday, April 23.
Before the matches began, seniors Ethan Chow, Allison Ding, Matthew Lee-Asiong, Roshan Mahesh, Enzo Markarian, Aditya Rajesh and Fiona Yao were honored in a senior night ceremony. With rackets raised and flashlights glowing, both the Titans and the Eagles formed a tunnel for the seniors to run through before they received flowers and posters alongside family and friends.
Following the ceremony, the matches got underway.
Though the Eagles were unable to secure the overall win, girls doubles 2 and 3, mixed doubles 3, boys singles 3 and boys doubles 3 took home individual victories. Coming off a 4–26 loss in their previous matchup against the Titans, the Eagles improved their performance by winning 2 additional matches.
Junior Sophia Lee said the match reflected the overarching challenges and efforts of the season.
“Our season has been pretty disappointing,” Sophia said. “Even in previous seasons, we would always see some sort of improvement in scores. But even in this season, we aren’t seeing that.”
The Eagles are 0–12 in the El Camino League. Senior captain Roshan Mahesh said this year’s season was focused on rebuilding after the team lost several key players who graduated last spring.
“We lost a lot of good guidance when it came to that graduating class,” Roshan said. “They were lively and brought a lot of dominance to the court.”
Besides their record, however, head coach Prateek Sarkar said this season was successful in many other ways.
“In terms of student involvement, student leadership, and planning, it’s been one of the best years since I’ve started coaching,” Sarkar said.
Sarkar added that this season emphasized results less and player development more.
“We want to make sure that nobody on the team ever feels unsupported,” Sarkar said. “So everybody can set a goal to improve, no matter what their level is. Most of the students are not going to take up badminton professionally, so they should make good memories that will last a lifetime while they are here.”
Looking ahead, both players and coaches expressed optimism about the future of the team, particularly with a large group of underclassmen gaining experience.
“I’m very optimistic for the future years,” Roshan said. “Even if our win-loss ratio was a bit tricky this year, everyone is passionate and optimistic going forward.”
