Badminton South West FL

Badminton Update South West Florida

First I’ve been on an extended vacation which is my only excuse for why you not seeing regular Blogs about badminton in SW Florida. Here is a little history about Badminton here in Ft Myers to bring you up to date.

 We started active badminton at the Brookshire Bath and Tennis Club in Ft. Myers, FL in August of 2004 after myself and Doug Worthington attended the 3 day George Washington University Badminton Camp in Washington, DC.  Doug was the real motivator since he had just returned from England and played badminton because he couldn’t find any racquetball courts. As far as I know we are the only operating badminton program in SWF south of Englewood which has a very good program. If I’m wrong on this please let me hear from you.

Badminton this summer has been slow, as it is in most sports, because of the heat and vacations, but our enthusiasm stays high.  We have been fortunate in recent weeks to find an excellent badminton teacher (Sandy Roberts)  who moved into the area and lives on Pine Island which is a part of Cape Coral.

Sandy has already run a couple of great clinics and promises to help us, especially if we are able to find a site to play on other then our racquetball courts, which are OK, but the walls limit the game. Sandy is currently away until late Sept.

We have also recently found a new possible site for badminton play which could be available sometime in September.

The new facility, known ass the Wakie Hatchee Recreation Center of Lee County, is a new Lee County Facility located on the west side of Bass Road, south of Summerland.  The entrance to the facility is just before the gate entrance to Lexington County Club on the right hand side.

We are currently talking with the facilities about getting some badminton lines painted on the courts but that won’t happen until the floor is refinished perhaps in 2 or 3 years from now.  In the interim we are trying to negotiate to have corners painted on the courts so we could put tape down once a week for play.  All of this should be resolved hopefully by September and we may start playing twice a week on two courts.  This if it happens will probably stop the badminton program at Brookshire except for special days and perhaps drills.  I will continue to update you all as I get information.

I am hopeful that with this facility available we can offer badminton as a sport in the Lee County Senior Games of 2006 which are held from January 30 to February 15.  These games are open to seniors 50 years or older.