It was the perfect conclusion for the high school badminton careers for Wilkie鈥檚 Jacob Mamer and Megan Sutherland.
The Grade 12 students at McLurg High School repeated as Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association mixed doubles champions Saturday as they picked up a straight sets win (21-5 and 21-7) over Kara Miskolczi and Taevan Athmer of Englefeld on their home court.
鈥淲e only started playing together three years ago, so to see what we鈥檝e done together has been pretty impressive,鈥� Mamer said. 鈥淲e won a silver medal two years ago and a gold medal last year, so we set our goals high again this year to try and repeat, especially since we knew that the provincials would be at our school.
鈥淭o be able to repeat is pretty special and to have everyone from our hometown watch us play made it an incredible experience,鈥� Sutherland added.
Although they entered this past weekend鈥檚 tournament as the defending champions, Mamer and Sutherland had struggled in their final tune-up before the provincials a week earlier at a regional tournament in Osler.
鈥淓ven though we advanced to the provincials, we weren鈥檛 even close to how we wanted to play during that weekend,鈥� Mamer said. 鈥淭here was a little bit of nerves as we were in a new gym, and we ended up getting into a rough patch where we didn鈥檛 play anywhere near our best.
鈥淲e put in a lot of work at practice this past week to improve on any mistakes that we made, and I think that allowed us to play at our best at the provincials.鈥�
The attention to detail that Mamer and Sutherland put into the game is something that their coach Laurie Churchill has seen first hand over the last three seasons.
鈥淲henever they do anything wrong in a game, they are back out on the court and making a lot of shots to fix those mistakes,鈥� Churchill said. 鈥淭hey are always looking for people to up their game against and play against the best competition possible.
鈥淢egan and Jacob really do play together as a team. They trust each other out on the court and give it everything they have every time they play.鈥�
Mamer and Sutherland used the home-court advantage to full effect Saturday as they had a perfect round-robin record and had a straight sets win (21-5 and 21-14) in the semifinal over Ella Brady and Liam Schmidt of Regina O鈥橬eill to punch their ticket into the gold medal contest.
鈥淎fter a strong week of practice, we were in a really good mindset of knowing what we needed to do in order to win, and I think that showed with the scores in our games,鈥� Sutherland said.
鈥淲e had a better idea of what to expect this year and I think we were a lot more comfortable as a result,鈥� Mamer added. 鈥淟ast year, we really didn鈥檛 know what the other teams had to offer, but we had the chance to play them at the Saskatchewan Winter Games in North Battleford a couple of months earlier so we had a really good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents.鈥�
Looking towards the future, Mamer and Sutherland are both preparing to study kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan this fall, but still hope to play badminton as much as they can.
鈥淚 think we鈥檙e both in a wait and see approach to how our schedules will be with our studies before we take to the court,鈥� Sutherland said.
鈥淚鈥檓 planning to try out for the Huskies football team in the fall, so it鈥檚 going to be really busy early on,鈥� Mamer added. 鈥淏adminton鈥檚 one of the sports though that you can play all year round and there鈥檚 something going on every night of the week in Saskatoon. It鈥檚 a lot like curling in a small town, as there鈥檚 always a game going on.鈥�
Meanwhile, the McLurg girls鈥� doubles team of Josie Huber and Abbey Sittler made it to the medal round but fell in a three set thriller (21-10, 17-21 and 9-21) to Megan Tumbach and Kerstyn Wenzel in the bronze medal game.
鈥淭hey really had a strong year and they were right in the mix to win a gold medal,鈥� Churchill said. 鈥淚 think there was a little bit of pressure for them being in the medal round for the first time, especially at home, but they had an excellent weekend.
鈥淛osie鈥檚 graduating but Abbey will be back next year for her Grade 12 year, and I think she鈥檒l learn a lot from this experience.鈥�
Also competing at the tournament were the boys鈥� doubles tandem of Deivid Rico and Blaise Sieben and the girls鈥� doubles pair of Guiel Salunga and Kaitlin Tarasoff of John Paul II Collegiate.
North Battleford Comprehensive High School was represented by the mixed doubles team of Ahmed Ali and Kiara Clarke.聽
