I wrote to CIS inquiring as to why badminton is unrecognized by them. This is the response I recieved. Every 5 to 6 years, CIS undergoes a program review where the various national sports organizations who's sports are not part of CIS can apply to have their sport added. The last program review was last year. No application was submitted by Badminton Canada at that time. Perhaps you should contact Badminton Canada regarding preparing their application for the next review in 2009-10. Joe Morissette Sport Programs Officer / Agent de programmes sportifs Canadian Interuniversity Sport / Sport interuniversitaire canadien 801 King Edward Ave. Ste. N205 Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 Tel: (613) 562-5670 ext. 29 Fax: (613) 562-5669 I am not so happy about the response... no wonder you can't get a sponsorship for badminton at any universities here. Its stupid because they only look into this every 5-6 years!! There goes any hope I have of representing my school. I'm not going to be there in 6 years! maybe in 5... but just for one year.. thats awful. I'm going to contact badminton Canada. Its stupid b/c it doesn't allow current student to ever have a chance at competeting for their school!! It takes 4 years for a bachelors degree... 2 years for a masters....
It might be "unrecognized" but I know they still hold competitions between Colleges and Universities in Ontario. (it makes sense there - they have universities all over that can field teams, unlike Alberta which has only two Universities and a ways to travel to compete with anyone else) When I went to Waterloo ( you can ask J. White - he played at the same time) University badminton was played with plastic birds.
I don't envy your plastic birdie use. It is frusterating for me though that I cant apply for any scholarships or anything like that.
I thought MRC had scholarships. When I coached at Sait they had badminton scholarhips, though the program was in shambles last I heard. Surprisingly some US colleges have badminton scholarhsips - UCLA for example used to have a $3500 scholarship at one point. You're running into what a lot of us found out years ago - unless you have access to a club, your training will likely suffer. My game took a giant leap AFTER a graduated university as I could them afford feather shuttles and money buy training time.
I am lucky enough to be part of a club. However, I still want a scholarship. My parents won't let me goto MRC, and I would prefer to goto U of C n e ways. Still tho... maybe i should goto UCLA. That would be sick.
Plastic birdies for university level play? That's too bad. Fortunately, the OUA uses feather birdies now. There is also a university league in Quebec (and they also use feather birdies).
I dont know if its the same thing, but Colleges here in BC have a league and for nationals compete with other colleges in Canada. Maybe one reason badminton isnt a big sport because they never bothered to advertise it?
FYI If you check both Badminton BC/Alberta web sites........ You will find on March 1-4, 2006 Mount Royal will host the CCAA National championship.
