Badminton come-try-it event a success

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on June 8, 2022.

Lethbridge Badminton Club in partnership with Lethbridge Sport Council hosted a successful come-try-it event on Saturday morning at the Fritz Sick Memorial Centre gym.
“We wanted to get the idea for people to come out, give it a shot if they’ve never played before — that’s great; come try it,” said David Zeeb, LBC president.
“You know it gets people back out there because who hasn’t played badminton somewhere in their lifetime? Whether it’s outdoor, you’re at a campground, in a school and it’s just a fun sport. It’s not a hard game to play (and) as with everything it’s a hard game to master.”
Zeeb said this one was about coming out and hitting a bird.
“The important thing is to just get interest out there, getting people to hit the bird and then if they become a part of the club, then that’s where we’ll start the skill development and the increase in just the love of the game,” said Zeeb.
“Everybody was ecstatic to see it was back. Parents are happy to see things out there for their kids,” he said.
There were over 50 participants at the event, with the youngest being seven years old and the oldest being 60 plus.
“Parker (Allen), who is with the Lethbridge Sport Council, he counted as many as 51 individuals that had showed up at any one time and he was saying that for the other try-it events, 40 is a really good turnout,” said Zeeb.
“So, this was fantastic.”
Zeeb got involved with the new LBC reiteration after the Lethbridge Junior Badminton Club was shut down due to COVID restriction in 2020 after 22 years of being run by Paul and Sharon Fogtmann.
“Then they’d been running it for so long, you know it was time for them to retire,” said Zeeb.
“They’re still involved in the community. But we needed something new back in Lethbridge. So I was looking for something for my daughters to play because they’re both interested and there was nothing and so I spoke with the Lethbridge Sport Council and it was suggested we set up a non-for-profit. So that was a whirlwind of paper work and emails back and forth to get a new club.”