2018 HOLIDAY FUN BOWL and HIGH SCHOOL BOYS STATE BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

Dec 8, 2018, Mesa...

The 2018 HOLIDAY FUN! BOWL and HIGH SCHOOL BOYS STATE BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS filled the AZBC courts with great competitive action, lots of fun, great prizes and tournament shirts. 80 players, 130 matches, 8 events. The high school boys had the largest turnout and highest level of play yet in the 7 year history of this event with 20 boys representing 8 different schools.

Congratulations to the 2018 HS BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM: SAHUARO HIGH SCHOOL OF TUCSON (2 Coaches on the left, and 6 players, center; along with individual champions: BOYS SINGLES: PHUC LY of MARICOPA HIGH SCHOOL (2nd from right) and BOYS DOUBLES: PHUC LY & ALXS GALIT of GOLDWATER HIGH SCHOOL (on right)!

Individually, left-hander Phuc Ly of Maricopa High School set a new standard of excellent play and took both the singles and the doubles titles, with Alxs Galit of Goldwater High School. But the team title went to the 6-player team of Sahuaro High School with 50 total team points, with Perry High School coming in 2nd with 39 points. Other standout play came from Michael Liang of Basis-Mesa who was runner-up in the boys singles.

In the Holiday Fun! Bowl portion of the tournament it was great to see the Kids division battle with Flora Tao winning both the Kids Mixed-Up Doubles with Samarth Dunakhe and the Kids Doubles with Nihira Sane. Recently retired professional baseball player and newcomer to the AZBC, Anthony Phillips, drew on his youth badminton experience from South Africa and recent badminton training to capture both the Open Mixed with Alexis Mee and Open Doubles with Chacko Kuravilla. Alexis Mee also won the Women Doubles with Tiffany Lok.

Event results: HS BOYS SINGLES- Phuc Ly def Michael Liang, 22-20; DBLS- Ly/Galit def Erickson/Fitts, 21-11

KIDS MIXED-UP DBLS- Samarth Dunakhe/Flora Tao, 4-0 in round robin play DBLS- Sane/Tao, 4-0 in round robin play

OPEN MIXED- Phillips/Mee def Glazeski/Nam, 21-19; MIXED CONS- Holloway/Rusk def Schneider/Devenport, 21-18

OPEN WOMEN DBLS- Lok/Mee def Jayaraz/Sane, 21-11; OWD CONS- Devenport/Pham def Doyle/Flores, 21-14

B WOMEN DBLS- Church/Sharpe def Guthrie/White, 21-13; BWD CONS- Baca/Phan def Doyle/Squires, 21-18

OPEN MEN DBLS- Kuravilla/Phillips def Schneider/Senthil K, 21-19; OMD CONS- Xu/Yao def Babu K/Saravanan S, 21-6

SENIOR MEN DBLS- Schneider/Shagi def Kuravilla/Julien, 21-10