The high school badminton season began Aug. 26 at schools across the state. West Valley Preps and Glendale Independent and Peoria Independent asked local high school coaches about their teams.
Here are their responses:

Ironwood Eagles

Coach: Brett Stafford (12th year at Ironwood)
Record: 14-0 (Division II champions)
Section: Division II Peoria
Who are your top returning players? No. 1 Madison Nguyen, No. 2 Sasha Tijore, No. 3 Alyssa Ridgley and No. 4 Mariyah Peru-Ray.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? No. 5 Sophia Tijore and No. 6 Alexis Jones.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? We have a lot of veterans on the team that are seniors and have worked extremely hard for the past three to four years.
What are the primary goals for this year’s team? To win team state, and be section champions. For individuals, we would like to have an individual state champion and a double team state champion.

Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions

Coach: Adam Korman (second year as Mountain Ridge head coach)
Record: 11-3 (Division I semifinals)
Section: Division I Desert Valley
Who are your top returning players? Bhavana Vinodh (junior) is ranked No. 1 and Shresta Narayanan (senior) is ranked No. 2.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Aditi Bhat (junior), Jessica Huang (senior), and Hannah Evans (senior) are not technically new to the team; however, they are new to varsity and will factor in heavily this season.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? The girls are determined to win and are willing to put in the time and effort to put themselves in the best position possible to succeed on the court.
What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Our team goals are to win our region and qualify for the team state tournament. Individually, we hope to position ourselves to do well enough in matches to earn a ranking in the state tournament, which gives a player a more favorable path through the bracket.

Sunrise Mountain Mustangs

Coach: Missy Carter (fourth yeat at Sunrise Mountain)
Record: 12-2 (Division II second round)
Section: Division II Peoria
Who are your top returning players? My top returning varsity players are Ruthey Figg, Delight Canale, Jaycee Carter and Brea Escobedo.
Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Kylie Puchta has returned from a torn ACL. She came back mid-season last year but had missed out on preseason and half of the year’s training. She worked hard over the summer and in preseason. She is doing very well. Nora Brooks is a JV player that too worked hard over the summer and earned a varsity spot this season.
What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? I think one of our best attributes is experience. Most of the varsity players have competed at this level and have a decent idea of what to expect. I also feel the girls get along very well, push each other and have fun together. They are a great group of players.
What are the primary goals for this year’s team? With the change of playing several Division 1 teams our goal is to be competitive in each match. We do hope to make a strong appearance in the individual state competition as well.