Nicholas Hon is a first-year student completing his Masters in Biotechnology. Hon has been playing badminton since middle school and played all four of his high school years at Bayview Secondary School. He completed his undergrad at the University of Waterloo where he played on the team there for five years. When coming to UTM it was obvious that Hon would be joining the varsity badminton team.
Hon plays both singles and doubles, but mostly doubles. Hon has already gotten comfortable with the team and says the “entire team is pretty chilled.” They only practice twice a week from 7-9 p.m. so, managing practices and studies is easy for him. It is also easy to balance badminton and studies for him as because he has been playing since middle school so it is part of his life.
Hon claims that he has always enjoyed playing and is almost never nervous before a match. He said that he was nervous in the first tournament of this season “since it was [his] first time playing in front of the team” but, after that he relaxed as he grew comfortable with his tennis partner. Hon and his partner made it to the semi-finals of this tournament. He hopes to make it to nationals although he has no intention of pursing badminton to a professional level.
Before a match, Hon likes to practice his serves by taking it lightly and staying relaxed. He also follows a healthier diet a week in advance and will sometimes meditate at night.
As for his new beginning at UTM, Hon so far “really likes the place.” He appreciates his coaches Lam Trinh and Jessica Dacquel and says, “they’re both really nice coaches and they do their best to make their players the best people they can become, both on and off the court […] they genuinely care about the players.”
