Badminton

 David Dryden 

 778-869-2187

 Email: southfraserbmt@gmail.com 

AD's & Coaches - This is a follow-up to my initial communication last Thursday. Thank you to those schools who have already submitted their STARS rosters to me. Please note that STARS rosters apply to both coaches and players. Similar to our BCSS Provincial Championships, in order to be eligible to participate in the Championships as a coach or a player, they must be on your STARS roster. Please email a copy to me by 4:00pm tomorrow May 12 so I can review in preparation. Original email below + updates to the draws and venues for reference.

Coaches - I have attached four documents to help you prepare:

1) Summary of the motion / rationale on the new format being used for SFAA Badminton Zone Championships this year & moving forward

2) The initial bracket / draws for the Championships starting Wednesday

3) Official boys & girls BCSS game sheets to help you prepare your lineups in advance

4) Singles Roster sheet to help you prepare your ranking in advance 

SFAA BADMINTON - 2026 SENIOR ZONE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Congratulations on successfully qualifying for the 2026 SFAA Senior Badminton Zone Championships! This event will award the South Fraser Banner (for each Boys & Girls) and also be the qualifying event to the 2026 BCSS Provincial Badminton Championships May 27-29 in Burnaby.

Provincial Berths: As of the writing of this email, the South Fraser Zone is currently granted 4 berths for Boys & 4 berths for Girls teams for the 2026 Provincials (3 were awarded based on Zone Representation & Zone Participation, and 1 was provided on the basis of historical strength due to another zone withdrawing).

Athletic Directors: In accordance with BCSS regulations as this is a Senior Zone Championship / Provincial qualifying event, please email me a PDF of your BCSS Stars roster(s) prior to 4pm Tuesday (May 12). I also recommend CC'ing your coaches. It is expected that this should be sufficient time to complete a "STARS - Moving Up Form", however, if not, feel free to provide a copy of all necessary rosters (ie - Grade 8, Junior, or Senior), which have your participating student-athletes registered. If a student-athlete competed (was written on your team line-up) but is not in your STARS database, those game(s) will be defaulted. We are implementing this as a best practice due to an issue from a previous year. It is also in the best interests of our Zone as a whole in preparation for the Provincial Championships. If your school does qualify for Provincials, please ensure to complete the moving up form as per 818.4 in the BCSS handbook. Thank you for your understanding.

Coaches: Last year the big change was the switch to single-gender. We did manage to successfully run the Zones concurrently (Boys & Girls together) rather than separately because we found that within our sport, most coaches are coaching both the Boys & Girls teams at their respective schools and would then be split/separated. This will continue.

However, there has been a change to the format of Zones. In the first four years of the SFAA, we utilized a Round Robin format whereas this year, we are moving to a Double-Elimination Bracket format. There will still be 8 teams (per gender), playing over 2 days. However, the new format allows us to have a more equitable system to properly place teams 1st-8th while simultaneously requiring less tie's. The format and motion from the SFAA Badminton AGM where it was approved is attached as a PDF for your reading pleasure. 

You are required to submit a list prior to the start of play on Wednesday to the venue lead. This list will name all of your players based on their strength/ability to play Singles (this does not mean they are required to play Singles but in the event that they do). In any tie that you play over the two days, the Singles A player on your lineup must be higher on the list than the Singles B player. This helps all teams be accountable to following the BCSS Rule that the Singles A player must be stronger than the Singles B player. It was implemented at the BCSS Provincials last year and will be utilized again this year. Note: This list will be an 'open' list which will sit at the draw desk in case coaches have any concerns. 

SCHEDULE OF PLAY & RULES FOR ZONE CHAMPIONSHIP

Wednesday May 13th

Venue “A”: Hosted at Grandview Heights Secondary (16925 25 Ave, Surrey) *Semiahmoo won the right to host but has elected to use nearby Grandview Heights instead

Venue leader: Maggie Lai

Boys:

(Home team left, Away team right)

3:30pm Warmup, 4:00pm Start

Surrey #1 (Fraser Heights) vs Delta #1 (Seaquam)

Surrey #3 (Semiahmoo) vs Richmond #2 (Palmer)

5:45pm

Winner S1 / D1 vs Winner S3 / R2

Loser S1 / D1 vs Loser of S3 / R2

Girls:

(Home team left, Away team right)

3:30pm Warmup, 4:00pm Start

Surrey #1 (Semiahmoo) vs Delta #1 (Delta)

Surrey #3 (Fraser Heights) vs Richmond #2 (Palmer)

5:45pm

Winner S1 / D1 vs Winner S3 / R2

Loser S1 / D1 vs Loser of S3 / R2

Venue “B”: Hosted at Steveston-London Secondary (6600 Williams Road, Richmond)

Venue leader: David Dryden

Boys:

(Home team left, Away team right)

3:30pm Warmup, 4:00pm Start

Richmond #1 (Steveston-London) vs Surrey #4 (Fleetwood Park)

Surrey #2 (Johnston Heights) vs Wildcard (Richmond High)

5:45pm

Winner R1 / S4 vs Winner S2 / W

Loser R1 / S4 vs Loser of S2 / W

Girls:

(Home team left, Away team right)

3:30pm Warmup, 4:00pm Start

Richmond #1 (Steveston-London) vs Surrey #4 (Grandview Heights)

Surrey #2 (Elgin Park) vs Wildcard (Richmond High)

5:45pm

Winner R1 / S4 vs Winner S2 / W

Loser R1 / S4 vs Loser of S2 / W

Thursday May 14th

Hosted at Steveston-London Secondary (6600 Williams Road, Richmond)

Venue leader: David Dryden

*6 of the 8 schools will be participating on Day 2 (if your school lost both matches on Day 1 they are eliminated)

*the 2 schools which won both matches on Day 1 are in the "Championship Final" set for 5:15pm start time

*the other 4 schools are competing for 3rd - 6th and will start at 3:30pm (3:00pm warm up); followed by a break to rest / eat / watch the Championship, then play again for either 3rd or 5th

3:00pm Warmup, 3:30pm Start: "Semi-Final #1" & "Semi-Final #2"

5:15pm Championship Final 

6:15pm: 3rd & 5th Matches

NOTES

All teams arrive & begin warm up (please bring your own warm-up birds)

Each team prepares a lineup on the BCSS Badminton Game Sheet (attached)

(We encourage you to prepare your lineups in advance to save time at the event)

Once the lineup is exchanged with the opposing coach, it is official and no changes can be made

Your Singles 'A' must be stronger than your Singles 'B'

Lineups for the next team vs team match should be submitted within 5 minutes of completion of the first team vs team match

The venue lead may assign courts for a team vs team match or run it with a draw desk in the interests of time

There will be brand new Yonex Mavis 300 shuttles for the Championships (venue leaders ,will be provided birdies)

All tie's follow the BCSS Badminton rules & regulations.

David Dryden

SFAA – Commissioner, Badminton

BCSS – Sport Advisory Committee, Badminton