{"id":153003,"date":"2023-05-10T20:59:34","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T00:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=153003"},"modified":"2023-05-10T20:59:34","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T00:59:34","slug":"port-hope-badminton-player-dedicating-ofsaa-matches-to-former-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/port-hope-badminton-player-dedicating-ofsaa-matches-to-former-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Hope badminton player dedicating OFSAA matches to former coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Hope High School\u2019s Sydney Watson is set to compete at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations<\/a> (OFSAA) provincial badminton championships in her hometown this weekend.<\/p>\n

She will have family and friends at Trinity College School in Port Hope to support her quest for another OFSAA medal: she captured the antique bronze for a fourth-place finish in girls\u2019 singles in 2022.<\/p>\n

One special individual will be missing in the gymnasium, but not from her thoughts: Watson\u2019s former coach Jolyon Thompson died suddenly in February. Thompson was a gold-medal winning competitor, coach, nationally-accredited referee and Badminton Ontario award winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard when badminton is like my escape for anything that stresses me out or to get my mind off things. So when the person that I see all the time to practice that sport with is also not there, it\u2019s definitely hard so going into the tournament; I\u2019m definitely thinking a lot about him and dedicating every game to him,\u201d Watson, who recently won her Central Ontario Secondary School Athletics championship, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m playing, I\u2019m definitely going to be thinking about things he would say to me in every game, making sure I\u2019m taking my time on my serves and keeping things positive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Watson has stenciled the initials \"JT\" and a heart on her racket for the OFSAA competition in tribute to coach Thompson.<\/p>\n

\u201cJolyon was so positive and enthusiastic and he was supportive in everything whether it was academics, athletics, your future goals,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was someone I was extremely comfortable with and I deeply admired. I really looked up to him and I fed off of his own love for the sport and it really made me more excited and determined to play and be the best I can. I really thank him for all the opportunities he had opened up for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Thompson\u2019s passing, Watson is now being coached by Adam Wilson. He has worked with her in the past and also was formerly coached by Thompson.<\/p>\n\nhttps:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/AdamSmith2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Wilson anticipates Watson, with her speed and strength, will be in medal contention again this year at OFSAA.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/AdamSmith-clip1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

OFSAA badminton runs from Thursday through Saturday at TCS in Port Hope.<\/p>\n

Hear the full interview with Sydney Watson here:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Port Hope High School\u2019s Sydney Watson is set to compete at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) provincial badminton championships in her hometown this weekend. She will have family and friends at Trinity College School in Port Hope to support her quest for another OFSAA medal: she captured the antique bronze for a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":153013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,204],"tags":[25929,25931,25930,25932],"radio":[25167],"origine":[267,25406,269],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153003"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153138,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153003\/revisions\/153138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153003"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=153003"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=153003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}