GWSC wins ‘SSV’ Year 7 Mixed Badminton State Championship!

We would like to congratulate our GWSC 'Year 7 Mixed' Badminton Team who recently won the 2026 'School Sport Victoria' Badminton State Championships at MSAC Stadiums!

Kudos to Vrishab Srinath, Kesar Malik, Aryav Shah, Ronald He, Quentin Yab and Avyan Verma who came together to form our gold medal winning ‘Year 7 Mixed’ Badminton Team. They faced some serious competition during the tournament, coming up against many Victorian and Australian representative players. This is our college's first State Title in Year 7 Badminton for 5 years, which just goes to show how difficult it is to win a State Championship in this highly competitive sport. 

Our ‘Year 7 Mixed’ badminton team won all of their preliminary round matches against Victory Lutheran College, Maribyrnong Sports Academy and Trafalgar High School. They began proceedings against Victory Lutheran College and encountered a very enthusiastic opponent. In spite of this, our GWSC team took out this first pool game six rubbers to love. It was then onwards to Maribyrnong Sports Academy, who were touted by many around MSAC as the team to beat prior to the start of the tournament. So that’s just what we did….we went out on court and played some of the best badminton ever seen at MSAC, taking out the match 5 rubbers to 1. You could literally hear a pin drop across MSAC when the other teams realised that GWSC had overcome MSA. Our final pool game was against Trafalgar High School, who offered little resistance as our more experienced players raced through their matches to secure top spot in our pool with a dominant 6 rubbers to love victory.

This pitted us against Viewbank College in the State Semi Finals, which turned out to be a terrific contest. After securing three of the four singles rubbers in a calm and controlled manner, we then went on to win both doubles encounters to set-up a re-match with Maribyrnong Sports Academy in the State Final. A sizeable throng gathered around show courts 1 and 2 in preparation for the start of the ‘SSV’ Year 7 Mixed Badminton State Final. Two singles matches were played concurrently, meaning our student coaches had to move frequently from court to court to pass on their expertise and encouragement to each of our players. Vrishab and Kesar played incredible matches against the top two ranked players from MSA, testing them throughout their clashes and securing many valuable points for our team. Aryav then took to the court and in a classic display of attacking badminton had our first singles rubber on the board. Ronald quickly soon followed suit with a dominant performance to secure another singles victory and square the match at two rubbers all. 

​Moving into the doubles, we knew we had to secure at least one more rubber and then also keep our opponents points tally as low as possible. After Vrishab and Kesar narrowly went down in the first doubles match, which was an absolutely enthralling game with multiple lead changes, it came down to our second doubles duo of Aryav and Ronald. The boys were were on from the very first point of their finals encounter, racing away to a nine point lead before their counterparts even registered a single point. They then went on to secure a 21-3 victory when Ronald's final smash caught the line which secured our third rubber, the match and the State Championship! Our GWSC players and student coaches all stormed the court, their jubilant celebrations were something to behold and will live on in our memories for some time to come…..It was also fantastic to see all of our players and student coaches move quickly towards the team from Maribyrnong Sports Academy and congratulate them on a fantastic final with three cheers and a round of handshakes. 

​All members of our 'Year 7 Mixed' Badminton Team represented themselves and our college so very well both on and off the court throughout the state tournament. They were humble in victory, respected all officials and opponents at all times, supported one another and fellow players from other teams in the correct manner, whilst also playing some absolutely breathtaking badminton which displayed their power, finesse, speed, agility and mental fortitude. Kudos to you all on being amazing badminton players and fantastic student coaches, but more importantly incredible people!

Massive thanks to our student coaches Kiya Kotapalli (Year 12), Natalie Trinh (Year 12) and Tara Trinh (Year 11) who all supported and encouraged our #Glenny'GOOD'minton team to do their very best at States!

Huge shout-out to our GWSC Alumni coach, Mr Adam Zhu, who kindly volunteered his time and efforts to help coach our ‘Year 7 Mixed’ Badminton Team in the lead-up to the 'SSV' State Championships. Adam also superbly supported our team throughout the state tournament and helped inspire them to compete at their very best!

Special thanks also to our GWSC staff members Mr Mitchell van Dijk and Mr Mark Robinson who helped train and coach our 'Year 7 Mixed' Badminton representative team in the lead up to the State Championships, running 22 training sessions since Term 1 with this superb squad. Additionally, they accompanied our students to MSAC Stadiums for the state tournament, where they provided continued support and encouragement to our latest State Championship winning badminton team.

Congratulations again to our victorious State Championship winning GWSC ‘Year 7 Mixed’ Badminton Team, you should all be very proud of your superb sporting achievements as all members of our #GWSCommunity are. We wish all of you all the very best for your future endeavours on court and can’t wait to follow your journey’s playing the world’s fastest sport….

#GoGlenny’GOOD’minton!