While the Costa badminton team has been practicing outside of the MCHS campus for decades, coaches David and Cindy Levin will be able to coach on campus after thier request was approved by Principal Dr. Karina Gerger.
The Levins were both collegiate badminton players at Arizona State University (ASU), and both Cindy and David Levin continued playing badminton at the national level. After their succesful badminton careers, the Levins continue to be an active part of the Manhattan Beach badminton community.
“Cindy played in high school for Mira Costa, and we both played badminton at ASU as scholarship badminton players,” David Levin said. “After my collegiate career, I played in some international tournaments and represented the U.S. in the Challenge Cup.”
The Levins have been coaching Costa’s badminton program for seven years. According to Cindy Levin, their main inspiration for coaching at Costa is their involvement in the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club’s Junior Program.
“We have a program at the Badminton Club in downtown Manhattan Beach where a lot of the kids want to play on the Mira Costa team,” Cindy Levin said. “David and I decided to step in and help teach and coach because we saw that there was a need for it.”
According to sophomore varsity player James Zhang, the Levins are putting in a lot of time coaching the team and have helped improve his technique. Their effort has led to the growth of many players.
“They definitely helped me improve my skills,” Zhang said. “The coaches take a lot of their free time to help us out, and I think everyone on the team appreciates Cindy and Dave for it. They do a lot for the team and help everyone become better.”
Even though this is its first official year on campus, Costa’s badminton team began to play games at the end of last school year. When the team began playing games on campus, the popularity of the sport increased at Costa.
“We have 48 team members this year,” David Levin said. “That’s the largest team Mira Costa’s ever had. More than half of that team are freshmen and sophmores, so Cindy and I are focused on the development of inexperienced players.”
According to Cindy Levin, another source of popularity for the sport is in European and Asian communities. Recently, those areas have had a spike in the interest of badminton, leading to the growth of the sport in other communities.
“The sport has gained a lot of popularity in the Asian and European communities,” Cindy Levin said. “ [Those communities] -have gotten really big into badminton and have dominated because they are playing year-round”
According to David Levin, access to Costa’s gym in tandem with the influx of new players will lead to the development of a thriving team. He plans to create a pipeline of new players that become competitive during their junior and senior years.
“Compared to other facilities within the CIF section, ours is a premium one,” David Levin said. “Our goal is to use the tools at our disposal to turn freshmen and sophomores into skilled upperclassmen that are able to vie for the CIF.”
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