Badminton champions Emir Mehmeti, Tom Kuruvilla, Deepak Pillai, Stefan Mitevski and Janith Randeniya. Picture: Stewart Chambers.
By Marc McGowan
SIX Dandenong High School students have gone from badminton novices to state champions in an extraordinary rags-to-riches tale.
The six year eight students – Tom Kuruvilla, Deepak Pillai, Janith Randeniya, Emir Mehmeti, Stefan Milevski and Nazmi Rexheppi – battled through district and southern zone competition to reach the state play-offs.
Only Tom and Deepak had any sort of a badminton background before they took up the sport for their school last year, with Tom’s weekly social games and Deepak’s semi-regular social games, but the other four relied on their tennis skills.
They met seven other schools from around Victoria in the state play-offs, until it finally came down to themselves and Doncaster Secondary College in the state final.
The Dandenong battlers were forced to fight adversity once again, as their Doncaster opponents took a 3-1 lead after the four singles matches.
With only the two doubles matches to play, the Dandenong team had to win both to have any chance of winning.
Each set is played first to 15, unless the score is tied at 14 all, whereby the first to 14 is able to choose how the match will be decided.
The options are to decide the set on the next point, or the first to win three points.
In the first doubles, Dandenong found itself 14-11 down in the deciding set, continuing its back-to-the-wall struggle.
True to form, though, it fought back to tie at 14-14 and subsequently won the next three points to take out the match.
With success in the final doubles rubber, Dandenong levelled the state final at three victories apiece.
The teams shared winning sets, as well, forcing the countback to be judged on winning games, where the Dandenong sextet triumphed by 10.
The victory is believed to be the school’s first state championship in up to 20 years.
Team coach Peter Bond said the whole school was very proud of the students and the way they represented the school.
“The good thing is the type of kids they are,” he said.
The remarkable achievement is not lost on Bond.
“It’s not like they are ultra-talented kids, pushed by their parents,” he said. “They’re just good kids, who are fairly skilled at racquet sports.”
The team was formed last year and managed to finish runner-up in the southern zone, an impressive performance in itself for the badminton rookies.
A year on, and after reaching the southern zone again, their commitment levels went up a notch.
Tom Kuruvilla, the number-one player in the side, organised for everyone to join his weekly social games at Springers Leisure Centre in Keysborough and they took off from there.
“It was a good win in the final, we did really well,” he said.
“It was a bit surprising (that we won) after we went 3-1 down in the singles.”
Deepak Pilliai, captain and number-two player in the squad, was equally pleased with the result.
“It was wonderful, we played really well,” he said.
“We thought we had a pretty good chance. It was really nice.”
