Stettler stars bound for Alberta Winter Games

A pair of promising badminton players from Stettler didn’t have to look far for inspiration.

John Langford and Kyle Poapst — both representing Zone 4 this week at the Alberta Winter Games — gained direction from older siblings who also played badminton at a competitive level.

“My brother had played it when he was older and he had been quite successful with it, so I thought I might try it,” said Langford, who turned 14 on Jan. 1.

Now headed for the provincial Winter Games this weekend in Stony Plain as part of the Parkland entry, Langford is following the footsteps of his brother James, a 20-year-old college student in Lethbridge.

“He just said it was a lot of fun, a good chance to get to know some people and have some fun,” said Langford, who has warmed up for the under- 17 competition with under-16 singles victories in the Stettler and Saskatoon tournaments the past two weekends.

“I do know that there’s some very good players going (to the Games). It’s going to be a hard thing to do. I’m just training to try and do well in it, so hopefully that happens.”

Langford is partnered with Deepan Harza of Red Deer for doubles play.

“We’ve teamed up a lot for different tournaments,” said Langford, who’s almost five-foot-nine and 135 pounds. “A lot of times, we’ve done well. Sometimes, not as great, but overall, we’ve done fairly well.”

Langford was the New Year’s baby in La Ronge, Sask., in 1998. His family moved to Stettler when he was two years old.

Poapst, who turns 14 in March, is part of a Zone 4 team that includes four boys and four girls. The Winter Games athletes have been practising together each Thursday and Sunday in Red Deer.

Poapst comes from an athletic family. His parents are teachers and have coached multiple sports. Older siblings Joey and Kaitlin set an example for Kyle and 11-year-old sister Sydney, who’s also a member of the Stettler Junior Badminton Club.

“I started playing (badminton) in Grade 2, and just got better and better,” said Kyle Poapst, now a Grade 8 student at Stettler Middle School.

“Our neighbours (Jenny and Orest Holubetz) ran the badminton club back then. My brother was in it then, and he was a strong player, and my (older) sister was in it for a bit.”

Joey Poapst was the athlete of the year as a senior at William E. Hay Composite High School. He’s now 19 and a student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

“Over the winter break, we went to the gym for about a week and he gave me some pointers,” said Kyle, who won boys’ doubles and mixed doubles titles, and was runner-up in under-14 boys’ singles, at the Stettler junior tournament on the weekend.

As did his siblings, Kyle plays a variety of sports. He’s a defenceman with the Stettler bantam B hockey team, he’s bound for bantam AAA baseball tryouts this winter in Red Deer, and he has played a range of school sports, including volleyball and basketball.

On the badminton court, Poapst is a standout at the under-14 level in a sport that he says isn’t as easy as it might seem, and where technique is critical.

“You don’t have to be huge in stature,” said Poapst, who’s about five-foot-eight and 130 pounds. “Your physical ability doesn’t have to be the greatest, because you can learn.”

“And it’s not something people can make fun of as much, because it’s harder to do than some other sports. You have to have more skills and fundamentals. They can’t say, ‘It’s easy, it’s easy,’ because then they try it in gym class and they look foolish.”

Last year, as Grade 7 students, Poapst and Langford helped Stettler Middle School win the CWAJHAA banner, as Langford won the singles title and Poapst took the doubles crown in partnership with Drew Cassidy.

Even with his strong credentials, Langford didn’t take anything for granted during the Winter Games tryouts at the Collicutt Centre in Red Deer.

“People from all over our region were competing, so I wasn’t quite sure what it was going to be like,” he said. “I just had to get ready. Just staying committed to the sport, sticking with it and doing my drills.”

Langford, who also plays volleyball at the school level, is committed to badminton on a fulltime basis.

“This is my main sport,” he said.

Along with their Winter Games obligations, Langford and Poapst practise with the Stettler club for two hours each Monday and Wednesday night. They credited Stettler coach Bruce LaRocque for developing players and helping them on and off the court.

Larocque is also bound for the Winter Games, as an official.

Team and individual events comprise the Games badminton tournament, which is set for Memorial Composite High School in Stony Plain.

“This is a good experience,” said Poapst, whose mixed doubles partner is Jessica Kyncl. “There’s good coaching. It should be good competition. It’s an under-17 event. It’ll be fun staying in the athletes’ villages … it’s like staying in high schools. There’s an athletes’ night on Saturday, with a dance.”

At the Stettler tourney this past weekend, Poapst won the under-14 boys’ doubles gold with Big Valley’s Ryland Stefanik, who beat Poapst in a singles’ final that went the three-game distance. The score in the third game was 23-21.

Hoang Lee of Red Deer is the head coach of the Zone 4 badminton team for the Winter Games.