badminton tryouts

Yesterday we had the final hitting tryouts for the badmin kids. It was fuuun. The freshman time slot was at 3-4, sophs from 4-6, and juniors/seniors from 6-7. The freshmen warmed up for a while, and then Alex started evaluating them one by one, with Aaron hitting opposite the freshman. It got to be really late (3:45 and still most of the freshmen hadn't been evaluated yet), so Sarah hit opposite half of the freshmen and I evaluated them. I think our grading was pretty fair because we assigned scores out of 5 (5 is excellent, and 1 is terrible) for clearing, dropping, net dropping, driving, smashing, and rallying each.

As expected, there were some who could only 'dink' the birdie; they received 1's. And then I yelled for Tim Ngo, and he started out with some good clears. I marked down a 5, thinking, "Hmm, his clears are good." Then I yelled for him to drop, and he did well. I put down a 4. And then when I yelled for him to smash, he was KILLING THE BIRD LIKE A FREAKING MONSTER. I put down a 6... LOL. And then when he and Sarah started rallying, he immediately smashed the birdie really hard and hit her. Geez. I was like, "OKAY alright already, you're done!! Go home!" lol. Crazy kid. Alex yelled, "We're cutting you! You're too good!" I heard later that he's a Bintang elite player and he's not allowed to go to Smash City.

Later, as Kimmy was putting together the list of freshmen who scored the highest, I noticed that some cool freshmen were cut... some of them because of MY evaluations :( Ah well...all's fair.

Then the sophomores came in, and they did their court challenges and stuff. We just meandered around and pigged out while we waited for them to finish their matches. lol. Sarah and I wandered outside of the gym into the little lobby area and saw all the juniors and seniors assembled there, waiting for 6pm to roll around. I walked outside to look at the rainbow, and CHRIS LOCKED ME OUT. grrr. So I made them open the door for me and I stole somebody's racket in retaliation. Turned out it was Samuel's, so he then retaliated by shoving me into the boys' bathroom. -___- I'VE BEEN INSIDE THERE WAY TOO MANY TIMES BEFORE! T__T (the first time was last year when Yuchii pushed me in and made me smell the nastiness and gunk of the guys bathroom...) I was pleasantly surprised by the clean and freshly-remodeled bathroom. The urinals had like little pink/red pillow things. Anyway, I was kind of grossed out, so Samuel and I both pushed against the door to get out, but someone was leaning against the outside. lol. STUPID.

But yeah... I don't think I mind their bathroom as much anymore. It's clean, no poop piles in the corner, the urinals are pretty, etc..

So then the juniors and seniors played their matches. Near the end, Vinh and Michelle challenged me and Alex to a game, so we played them. My hair was flopping all over the place because I'd forgotten a hair tie >_> Then Clinton and Kevin played us. GEEZ, they're insane. They both kept dropping and I kept missing them. lol. gahh. I was pleasantly surprised by how many smashes I could return, though... I think I just might have to thank Trevor for his help last semester. Alex and I lost 16-17... but we'll get them next time D:

It is SO sad cutting people :( You get used to seeing people around and assuming they'll be on the team, and suddenly they're not there anymore. I think a few exceptions have to be made for some people, however. We absolutely need them.

Individual interviews tomorrow with them; that shall be fun :)