Saturday Night! Just Like the Good Old Times

**Disclaimer** The following report from our Canadian Junior Nationals Montreal Correspondant, contains opinions that do not necessarily reflect those of the “Badminton Video Magazine”, and the “Badminton Video Magazine” does not condone, or recommend the actions described by the “Montreal Correspondant”. That being said, enjoy…

Hello there, this is your “Montreal Correspondant” reporting. I would have posted this article yesterday (Sunday), but my full recovery took a little longer than expected. It’s been 4 years since I last competed in the nationals (thank you to whoever was behind introducing the u23 nationals). I know personally, it was such a great feeling to experience Junior Nationals one more time as a player. Some of my best memories as a teen have come from Nationals (particularily Saturday night) and I wanted to make sure that was the younger players could say the same thing later on down the road. On that note, I knew that it was up to me and the rest of the veterans to show the up & coming athletes the real spirit of what Nationals is all about, because, really, Nationals is more than just a competition… its a celebration….its a way to embrace the sport that we all love both on and off the court.

As a reporter, I wanted to find out what it took to make a Saturday night nationals celebration a memorable one; here’s what I found. First off, the winners have to treat themselves right and start celebrating immediately. This involves jugs of beer being shared amongst you & your friends while lounging in the sauna/steam room. This, I was told, is called the pre-pre-pre-game celebration.

Next, everybody takes a few minutes to slap on something decent to wear and find a designated location for the pre-pre-game celebration. This location just happened to be my hotel room, room 2008. Everyone is invited to the pre-pre-game. Apparently the secret to a good pre-pre-game involves a couple texas mickey’s of Canadian Club’s finest whiskey, a few cases of Coronas purchased from the local depaneur ($15 for a 12 pack!!), and about 20 empty stomachs to fill. This should lead to a fashionably late but graceful entrance into the banquet…just in time for the main course.

Congratulations to the “fair play award” winners. In case you don’t know, this is the award given to the most sportsman-like player. I was expecting Brody Hilland to be a shoe-in for this but I guess he fell shy by a few votes. One thing I would like to ask though, what was up with the door-prizes!!?? As much as I would have like to have my name drawn to win the DVD collection of “ultimate fighting’s greatest knock-outs”, I think something that advocated less violence would have been better. The banquet ended up being a quick meal for the players as they were anxious to attend the pre-game celebration, which again took place in room 2008. I felt sorry for the deejay that was hired to host “the dance” at the banquet. Based on the energy that the pre-pre-game generated, I think the deejay was expecting a pretty rowdy night…unfortunately, by 9:30 pm he was hearing crickets. Actually I felt more sorry for whoever had to pay for the deejay.

Moving on to the pre-game. To put it simply, the pre-game is a hotel room full of about 50 people looking for a means to intoxicate themselves. Whether it be drinking Vodka and chasing it with beer (as so gracefully demonstrated by the ladies from Ontario), or taking part in Corona chugging contests (props to the young men from Alberta), people found a way to “get ‘er done”.

Now, on to the real celebration which took place at “Mile End”; a quaint little 3 story night club on St. Laurent. This basically involves the purchasing of $7 drinks and intense dancing to repetitive house music. It’s hard for me to actually describe in anymore detail what else went on at the Mile End. For some reason, my memory is drawing a blank. If you want to learn more about the type of dancing that went on, you’ll have to check with our other correspondants Mark Docksteader and Leila Barrs. To learn more about which 18 year old boys were make movies on 21 year old ladies, just ask Tammy Sun. To find out what its like to eat at McDonalds at 4am just ask Justin Mullaly. If anybody has any additional reports regarding the events that took place last week, BVM would love to hear from you. Please make your postings on the forum or add a comment under the article. Reporting from the drunk tank, “the Montreal Correspondant”…