After a horrific start to his final year of high school, Sam MacDonald is enjoying battling birdies as he counts down his final days at Kelly Road Secondary School.
"At the beginning of the school year, I crashed on my bike and had to have surgery on my face," said MacDonald, the scars still visible under his right eye. "I wanted to play badminton to at least play a sport to keep in shape."
MacDonald and his fellow rookie Grade 12 doubles partner, Trevor Bizicki, won all four of their games Wednesday, helping the KRSS Roadrunners beat the PGSS Polars in the the high school city badminton league.
He and Bizicki become the first Grade 12 students to try badminton for the first time in two years at KRSS.
"It's a good surprise," said Roadrunners coach Lisa Davison. "It shows other high-end athletes at school that badminton is a tough sport and changes the image of it as one of the softer school sports."
MacDonald's accident happened during a family trip to Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops the weekend before classes began in September when MacDonald was riding the mountainous trails with his brothers.
"I was coming around a turn on the mountain and my bike washed out," said the 17-year-old, who was wearing a full face helmet. "I don't know what I hit - a rock or a root, maybe."
MacDonald said he seemed physically fine. When his brother caught up, they pedaled down the mountain where he went to wash his face in the washroom.
"The very first thing I asked was if I had any teeth left because I couldn't feel my mouth or any of my face," said MacDonald with gestures to his face. "I had nerve damage to my face so I couldn't feel."
It got worse when MacDonald surveyed the damage in front of a mirror.
"I was cleaning my face in the bathroom when I noticed my nose was filled with blood," he said. "I blew it, which breached my sinus, blowing air into my eyes and it puffed up. It was gross."
A week later, MacDonald had surgery at UHNBC to repair three broken bones and have three plates installed in his face. He would return for a second surgery in December to have the plate in his cheek removed, which had begun to swell again because it was infected, possibly from bone fragments that settled inside it when he blew his nose.
With his face healed enough to play sports, MacDonald has also decided to try rugby this May. Both boys are no strangers to more physical sports, having played together on the Roadrunners football team for two seasons.
