Yard games. Things people break out a couple of times each summer when they’re bored, desperate, or suffering from a mental breakdown. Someone might play an hour of botchy ball, or two rounds of croquet, or maybe some badminton. Now Stillwater is turning that little bit of experience that many people have into an intramural tournament.

Stillwater began a new tradition this year by hosting its first ever intramural badminton tournament, then, several weeks later, holding its second. 6-8 teams of two battled in a single-elimination event at the Stillwater gym, with the first tournament being held on Thurs., Feb. 3, and the second on Mon., March 24. The price was $4.

“People got really into it. When teams lost, they just hung around and watched the rest of the game. A lot of the people were still there watching the championship,” said senior Charlie Farrington.

The first tournament consisted of a tournament of 8 teams of two, which, unfortunately, was a lower turnout than the school expected. This likely influenced the school’s decision to do the same tournament again, with more time for the word to spread about the event.

“I think not as many people signed up for the first one as they would have liked, and I think a lot of people didn’t know about it until it happened, so they wanted to do another one for the people that didn’t get to sign up for the first one,” said Farrington.

While a relatively low number of people showed up, that certainly did not affect the level of the competition.

“The competition was really good. It was a lot better than we expected it to be,” said Farrington. “Every single one of our matches was really close, it got down to the last few points.”

While it was hoped the second tournament would be more exciting, with more time for participants to sign up and with more people knowing about the event, but this was not the case.

“The second tournament, a lot of my friends were there, and I don’t think they liked me winning much. Most of them left,” said junior Sam Keran, who won the second tournament.

While this year, the tournament didn’t have the roaring crowds that every boy dreams of playing in front of one day, this was only the first year of badminton’s existence at the high school, and future years could bring a weekly intramural sport, with more fan support, of course.