The birds will be flying in the gyms of Cochrane High School (CHS) and Bow Valley High School (BVHS) this Saturday.

Cochrane is set to host the senior high zone finals and 200-plus players could potentially be competing in the all-day tournament to see who will advance to the provincials in Red Deer, May 5-6.

Play starts at 9 a.m. in both schools and teams will be playing a round robin in pools of eight before the playoffs start in the afternoon, explains Cobras coach Jason Crawford.

In all, there are about 280 possible games for each grade level, plus playoffs, making it nonstop action until about 5 p.m..

Both schools had a large complement of players in the divisionals--about 50 from CHS and 25 from BVHS--and many advanced to the zones.

There's a huge contingency of Cobras  making the zones. The CHS team was weighed down with medals in the divisionals, claiming 11 golds, four silvers and five bronze.

Two Bow Valley girls double teams may well be meeting again in the zone finals after squaring off in the divisionals. The teams of Sarah Bairaktaris and Maddi Lethebe and Megan White and Mikayla Zilkowsky finished first and second, respectfully,  in doubles after an intense final. 

Crawford has been coaching badminton at the Cochrane High School for about 15 years and says it has proven to be popular season in, season out.

"I've been coaching badminton for about 15-16 years and we've had a large number of kids every one of those years. It's a great participation sport because even if you don't play any other team sport, it can be a sport you can excel at. We have a lot of kids that play other sports, but we also have kids that only play badminton."

What makes badminton so appealing is it's a life-long sport, believes Crawford.

"I play in an evening league with a guy who's 84 years-old and he's been playing for years. So you can play from the time you're a young child right into your 80s, as long as you take care of your body and stay fit," says Crawford.

While it's a popular recreational sport in a leisure setting, like a backyard, it can also be fiercely competitive on inside courts.

"There are people who play recreational and some that play very competitively. Those kids that are competitve you see it when they play; they don't want to lose, they are very competitive."