... playing badminton in the Park? Yes. In a pandemic, when you have an unexpected bye weekend in college football, that's what you do. And boy, the shuttlecocks were flying. Some upperclassmen thought a few of the younger guys had decided to get a head start on training for the Hall's Shuttlecock Showdown, a Founder's Week favorite, but that was not the case. Instead of training for one of Notre Dame's most coveted residence hall sports tourney- and Steds has the most of them with two, the fourth floor RAs, Ben Cook and Joshua Chapple, thought that they would introduce the freshmen to this gentlemanly sport. Setting up several badminton nets in St. Edward's Park, the players took their instructions, then their positions, and next, played away. Even though it was friendly and in many respects a tutorial, competitive spirits surfaced, and suddenly, it got real... especially when some freshmen showed some advanced techniques, revealing a familiarity with the sport. Before they knew it, Cook and Chapple were being schooled by their pupils. In the end, seniority gave way to youth as freshmen, AJ Vanchieri and James Longhurst, won the day in the Park.
On their loss, Cook was a gracious loser saying, "It was an honor and a privilege to organize such a successful event. My first round elimination only proves my dedication to the encouragement and support I have for the freshmen I serve. Any higher on the leaderboard could have aroused suspicion that this was merely a ploy to display my own physical prowess." And not far behind Cook, Chapple shared similar sentiments saying, "I don’t understand how the talent gets better and better ever year."
... but they were savage on the field of play.
