‘I was so excited’ Athletes like Geneva badminton’s Makayla Flanigan happy to see sports resume

GENEVA – To Makayla Flanigan, badminton “brings so much more joy than you would imagine.”

“Even the competitiveness is much more than you think,” said Flanigan, a Geneva senior. “It gives you that competitiveness as an athlete, but also it’s giving you more of a relaxed and not a high-stress [aspect] for sure.”

Last week, athletes like Flanigan around Illinois learned positive news regarding the resumption of sports.

On Friday, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike announced that regions reaching Phase 4 could participate in all sports. Earlier in the week the Illinois High School Association said that lower-risk winter sports like badminton, boys swimming, boys and girls bowling, gymnastics, cheerleading and dance are able to practice immediately in regions no longer under Tier 3 COVID-19 mitigations.

The IHSA also announced that contact days for fall, spring and summer sports can begin on Monday, Jan. 25 for schools in regions under Tier 2 COVID-19 mitigations or less restrictive levels.

Region 8, which includes Kane County, moved to Tier 1 on Tuesday.

“I was so excited,” Flanigan said. “I play volleyball usually during the fall as well, and so not being able to have a sport to start out any school year was definitely super weird. Just hearing that I’m able to play a sport and have some type of outlet for school and everything going on was super exciting.”

The badminton season was wiped out last spring because of the pandemic, so Flanigan is technically entering her third season on varsity after playing on the second junior varsity team as a freshman.

“Freshman year, I totally had never played before...I had such a blast meeting new people and everyone was just super sweet,” Flanigan said. “It’s really good team bonding. I love that so much...it was really great to kind of be a family and I love that about badminton for sure.”

While rosters are being finalized, the Vikings are forecasting having eight returning seniors to fortify a varsity roster between 12 and 14 players.

Schedules for low-risk sports are being finalized, as they’re currently able to compete in contests. It’s possible DuKane Conference badminton matches could begin as soon as the first week of February.

“Everyone is really excited to start,” Geneva coach Dee Neukirch said. “Any time we could have contact days, we’d have a ton of kids there.”

“This is a [senior group] that started with us since seventh grade and has stayed with the program,” Neukirch continued. “There’s just that cohesive [dynamic]; they know me, they know my other coaches...they’re just a very committed group.”

The tennis program, it turns out, is a bit of pipeline for badminton. Neukirch is also the junior varsity girls tennis coach.

“In the fall, we had 92 girls come out for tennis. We kept them and made a space for them. And, we worked around the clock,” Neukirch said.

Many of those freshman are now being recruited for badminton.

“I was able to really encourage a lot of those freshman [to play],” Neukirch said. “So many of [them] were volleyball players who just came out for tennis to do something. Now, they’re like ‘Well, tennis was fun, let’s do badminton’...I’ve even had a couple girls that have said ‘I don’t know if I’m going to play volleyball because I’ve just had so much fun learning about tennis and badminton.’”

“I will say that there is definitely an energy there to just be involved [for the younger kids],” Neukirch continued.