Sofia Lundkvist came from halfway around the world in Sweden to finish her last year of high school in Prince George as an exchange student.
Having played badminton since she was 10 years old, Lundkvist, 19, was looking forward to swinging her racquet in the North Central Open badminton tournament at the College of New Caledonia and had this past weekend circled on her calendar.
The Grade 12 D.P. Todd secondary school student can now look back on that weekend with a sense of accomplishment, after winning the women's singles competition.
"That went very good, I'm happy about that," said Lundkvist, who went on Skype on Saturday to break the news to her father back home in Halmstad, on the west coast of Sweden. "I've played badminton since I was 10 but it's only been serious for about five years. I'm just playing for fun here, nothing serious. I don't want to put that effort into it, I want a life outside badminton. My dad lives for badminton."
Lundkvist also teamed up with James Tran of Fort St. John in the mixed doubles event and lost two matches. Malachi Rustad and Rea Barber of PG Racquets Club won the division.
Lundkvist finds the school system different from what she was used to in Sweden and still can't figure out why people on Prince George place such importance on driving around in big vehicles.
"Canada is different but still there's not a really big difference," she said. "I've learned a lot. I never watched hockey until I came here and went to the Canada Games men's final. That was fun.
"What you eat and how you talk is different," she said. "I was kind of disappointed, I wanted a really cold winter here. Where I live in southern Sweden it only gets to minus-10, it never gets that cold."
Lundkvist figurers her D.P. Todd team has a good shot at knocking off the three-time defending zone champions, Kelly Road, at the north central zone championship at Duchess Park and PGSS, May 7-10. The zone winners (six girls, six boys) will advance to the provincial high school championships in Kamloops, May 28-30.
The Kelly Road Roadrunners have two of the city's top teenaged players - Olivia McClair, 16, and Jarin Davison, 15. Both are competing in the B.C. junior championships this weekend in Richmond. Davison will play in the under-17 division in singles and doubles (with Jonah Lee of Vancouver), while McClair is entered as an under-19 (singles only) player.
"It's just different - there's better competition," said Davison, who played in the 2014 junior provincial tournament. "I didn't play the greatest down there last year. I'm playing better now, I've grown a lot."
Unlike Davison, who started playing when he was four, McClair dabbled in badminton when she was a Grade 6 student but didn't start playing regularly until 2012 when she made the B.C Games team. She likes the sportsmanship involved in badminton and how it has raised her level of fitness.
Davison finished third in men's singles in the North Central tournament while McClair was second to Lundkvist in women's singles. McClair also teamed up with Jeremy Cote of Victoria to finish second in the mixed doubles event.
Kelly Road has 28 players on its school team, up from 18 last year, and D.P. Todd and Duchess Park have also had an influx of players join the program which started in March, right after the Canada Winter Games.
"The Canada Games sparked a lot of interest," said McClair. "I was a line judge at the Games and a lot of us on the badminton team did line judging for them."
McClair knows some of the Team B.C. players who competed at the Canada Games and has played against two of them - Alexa Liu and national under-19 champion Jenna Wong - at Shuttlesport tournaments in the Lower Mainland.
"I love going down there because the competition is so much more and it makes you play better against better people," said McClair.
About half of the city's high school players are new to the game this year. Morgan Young and Sarah Frigow play volleyball on Kelly Road school teams and both decided to take up badminton as a new challenge.
"It's fun, I like that it's an individual sport but you also play for your school team," said Young. "I think I've gotten better since I started. I've lost more than I've won this weekend but I'm happy when I do win."
"I like how fast you have to be with the footwork in badminton - you have to be really co-ordinated," said Frigow. "I didn't do very well this weekend in the tournament but that's probably because the other players are more experienced than I am. I find holding a racquet is awkward because I'm not used to it. Having to make quick movements is the same as in volleyball and I quite enjoy it."
Kelly Road coach Lisa Davison is entered in the Canadian masters badminton championships, April 20-24 in Edmonton.
