Napa Valley High School Badminton: Undefeated Wolves ready to host VVAL Tourney (2024)

Dorothy Gail Ramos, now in her ninth season as head coach of the American Canyon High badminton program, enjoys coming back to her alma mater.

The 2003 Vintage High graduate saw her Wolves finish undefeated in regular-season Vine Valley Athletic League matches, including a second win over defending league champion Vintage in Napa on April 23.

“I played on these courts myself as a high schooler and I always had that nostalgic feeling coaching here, and they’ve been our biggest competition these last two years,” she said. “They’ve had a lot of talent channel through, and now we have the same thing.”

The final score at Vintage was not available, but the Wolves won at last nine of the 15 matches to clinch the victory.

“You still have that feeling like, is it an ‘Uh oh’ or is it in the bag? We do have a few people out, but we train for the unknowns,” Ramos said. “I always tell the kids the key to success is preparing for the unknown. You really don’t know what kind of adversity you’re going to see on the court, let alone on our own roster.

“My student-athletes are in music, dance, choir, so many different things, so I train other people to fill in those spots. That says a lot about the people that you have, that you can pick and choose and not really have a moment where you’re trying to scramble. There’s always someone willing to fill that spot. They practice and play exhibition matches as if they’re on varsity, and that’s how we do it from Day 1.”

American Canyon swept the boys singles, led by No. 1 Owen Adderly’s 21-16, 21-7 win over Daniel Fernandez. At No. 2 through No. 4, it was Andrew Buenaventura over Tommy Lamb, 21-13, 21-8, Mark Alviz over Kamran Razi, 21-18, 20-22, 21-11, and Nolan Saelaw over Saul Garcia, 10-21, 21-11, 21-19.

The teams split in girls singles. Winning for the Wolves were No. 1 Elizabeth Glenn over Allysen Crowley, 21-13, 17-21, 21-17, and No. 2 Maya Quidit over Briana Hurtado, 21-12, 21-9. Vintage’s Aina Akaboshi beat Meghan Dang 21-8, 21-11 at No. 3, and Aliyana Castorena downed Harman Gill 21-11, 14-21, 21-17 at No. 4.

American Canyon won two of the three mixed doubles matches. Bowie Luong and Adderly won 21-9, 21-16 over Crowley and Fernandez at No. 1 and Angelica Abueg and Buenaventura prevailed 21-18, 21-12 over Akaboshi and Tylen Carrasco at No. 2. Vintage’s No. 3 team of Victoria Barajas-Hernandez and Lamb beat Prabveer Khaita and Rhianna Maglalang 21-9, 21-6.

Another Wolves win came at No. 2 boys doubles, where Lawrenz Modesto and Matthew Moulder defeated Shiloh Alcantar and Garcia, 21-17, 21-11. The scores for the No. 1 match between the Wolves’ Alviz and Saelaw and the Crushers’ Carrasco and Razi was not available.

Also not available were scores for the No. 1 girls doubles match between American Canyon’s Quidit and Dang and Vintage’s Hurtado and Barajas-Hernandez, and the No. 2 match between the Wolves’ Glenn and Abueg and the Crushers’ Julia Rodriguez and Castorena.

Robyn Del Zompo stepped down after guiding the Crushers to the 2023 VVAL crown in her 19th season at the Vintage helm. Taking over was one of her four-year players, 2020 graduate Emma Hall.

“We’re doing really well,” said Hall. “Sadly, it’s not as good as last year, but we’re still doing really well, even after Coach Del Zompo left. We only have three losses this year and the rest for we’ve won pretty well. A lot of the kids still need to work on some different skills and hone their endurance. A lot of the kids will get to see at the VVAL Tournament how far they’ve grown since the beginning of season and what they still need to work to be able to play their best. It will be the last tournament for some of these kids.

“All of our kids deserve shout-outs. They’ve made me feel very welcome this first year coaching by myself. A lot of them have stepped up in ways I didn’t expect them to step up. Everyone has been great this year. I was worried coming in because a lot of our star players graduated last year. But we have a lot of star players that are stepping up that are juniors this year and they’re gonna have a really great season next year.”

American Canyon held its annual Wolf Classic tournament on April 20, hosting five other schools, and now Ramos said the Wolves are excited to host the VVAL Championships this Friday and Saturday.

“I have 90% brand new scorekeepers and line judges, so they’re ready to step up,” she said. “We have 18 seniors, and five of them are managers, and we have 45 players total this year. I usually don’t take that many, but knowing how many seniors are gonna be leaving, I’ve got to be ready to fill those holes.

“I’m already looking at next year — who’s gonna be coming back, what kind of partnerships can we develop, and how we can keep this winning streak going into the future.”

Dean Ruggiero contributed to this report.