Derrick was a successful player, team captain, and coach of the Vancouver College/Little Flower Academy (VC/LFA) joint badminton team, from 2002-2009, while I was the teacher sponsor of this interscholastic organization.
During his tenure, the team captured four second-place finishes at the provincial championships, eventually winning the championship in 2008 while he was the third-year head coach. The British Columbia School Sports (BCSS) league typically puts over one hundred teams on courts across the province from September to April, from both public and independent schools.
The VC/LFA team re-started in 2001 after a twenty-year hiatus, and enjoyed unprecedented success during Derrick’s tenure as player (2003-2005), captain (2004-2005) and coach (2005-2009). Our boys’ school is 97 years old (the girls’ school is 80 years old), and has just a single provincial championship banner for badminton hanging from the rafters of our storied gymnasiums; Derrick, as head coach, was instrumental to our team capturing not only the four runner-up finishes, but our first and only provincial championship. Some school officials, who have tracked statistics on all of our schools’ sports teams, have told me that the badminton team, during 2001-2009, has the highest winning percentage across the gamut of any of the sporting endeavors we carry at our institution, from football to rowing. During the run to our provincial championship in 2008, we had an undefeated 19-0 season and post-season.
I was able to see first-hand how Derrick evolved substantially as a player, captain, and then coach during the time he volunteered on behalf of our schools, from a half-motivated player into to a driven young coach who was well-respected, sometimes feared, and well-loved by our rosters, be they starters to third-string players. For his and his family’s contributions to badminton at our school, I nominated him for inclusion in our school’s Hall of Fame. Although I am no longer directly involved with the program, I still have fond, if not clear feelings and memories of my time with the team and Derrick, and was honored to be a part of the unfurling dynasty he imprinted upon VC/LFA badminton.
Ben Kim
Teacher & Badminton Team Sponsor