With its history of three consecutive CIF Championships, the Diamond Bar High School varsity badminton team expects to achieve yet another title this season. Aside from competition, the captains hope to improve team commitment, increase bonding time, and earn greater acknowledgement for the sport.

“We really think we have an excellent chance to win our fourth straight CIF championship. We did lose a lot of talent, but I rank teams on how much talent we return, and we return a ton of great players,” coach Kemp Wells said.

Though all the captains and coach Wells are expecting to win CIF again this year, they are also hoping to participate in more games throughout the regular season. Like last year, DB may compete in the Azusa tournament again, and plans to send two groups to play.

“One of the things that’s pretty fortunate is that most of our players come, I would say 80 to 85 percent, prepared because they do so much work in the off-season. Skill-wise, they are in great shape. We don’t have to do as much conditioning as we used to,” coach Wells said.

Off the court, the team is working to create better chemistry among the teammates. Each game, the team has a food exchange called Brahma Buddies, where players exchange snacks.

“I believe that bonding is important because as team, supporting each other is a very important role. If we are closer to each other, we will support each other during the game resulting in a better performance and more wins,” sophomore Justin Lam said.

While the team’s skill is not a concern for junior Jonah Perea, he believes the team’s commitment level can be improved. Perea plans to deliver more motivational speeches to his teammates when the team deals with adversity.

“Some people in this team need to bring more commitment into this sport. But other than that, we have a really solid team,” Perea said.

In addition to competitions, senior Ivorine Do hopes for the team to gain more acknowledgment for their efforts. While many fans’ interests goes toward other sport teams, the badminton team has been one of the few DB teams to bring in titles and victories on a consistent basis.

“People aren’t aware of how difficult badminton can be and often undermine it. Some people say it’s not even a sport,” Do said.