Team Northern Ontario remains hopeful for spot on badminton podium despite tough start

Northern Ontario's badminton team had a tough start to its 2024 Ontario Winter Games campaign, but their coach remains hopeful they'll find their way to the podium.

The Northern Ontario Badminton Association (NOBA) squad — made up of 12 players from across the region, including Thunder Bay — lost to both the York Region District Badminton Association, and York Region District Badminton Association, at Superior CVI on Saturday.

As of Saturday afternoon, NOBA was sitting with zero points on the scoreboard.

"We pulled a really tough draw," Kurt Tempelmans Plat, coach of Team Northern Ontario and president of NOBA, said following the morning loss to York. "We're expecting some tough matches, maybe not as many wins as we would like at the end of the day, but I felt that the athletes were really competitive, and something that we tend to do very well in NOBA is be spirited regardless of the win or the loss."

Still, Tempelmans Plat was optimistic about his team's chances at the games.

"We placed third at the last Winter Games," he said. "It was our first medal in 30 years."

"I think it's on people's minds. Can we do it again? I'm a very honest person. I really do think that we can pull off a medal this time, but will not be without a lot of battles to get there."

NOBA covers a very large territory, Tempelmans Plat said, stretching from the North Bay area west to the Manitoba border. There are 12 athletes on the team this year, mostly from North Bay; Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Manitouwadge are also represented on the roster, however.

One of those local athletes is 16-year-old Kayo Lake, who recently moved to Thunder Bay from Marathon, and has been playing badminton for the last few years.

"I'm a big player on team sports," he