Entering her first match of the year, the Women’s Badminton team No. 1 player, Pavithra Wijratne had two compelling reasons to play the game: to support her school and to support her country.
“I came here in 2006 from my country of Sri Lanka,” Wijratne said. “By playing at El Camino I was able to bring attention to a country most people forget about.”
Wijratne’s badminton playing experience in Sri Lanka was not as extensive as her experience at EC. Furthermore, she never accomlished a 24-0 regular season record back home. However, it planted the seed to that would flourish into what so far has been a very succesful college career.
“I played a long, long time ago back at home for my middle school,” Wijratne said. “When I first came to America, I didn’t know they played badminton. It was nice to be able to start playing the sport again.”
The availability of badminton at EC also benefited the team and the program.
“With Pavithra, we had a quality player joining the team,” coach John Britton said. “However, she lacked experience, which made her success a challenge.”
With the help and instruction from Britton, the support from her teammates and extensive practicing, picking the game back up came easily for Wijratne. Still, she did not expect to encounter the sudden success that she did during her first season in EC’s badminton team.
“I didn’t expect to go 24-0 for the season,” Wijratne said. “I was able to learn so much technique that I didn’t know before.”
Wijratne believes that the high level of competition she encountered when she began playing in the United States allowed her to improve as a player. which contributed to the imprerssive season that she had.
“When I started to play here in America, I had the opportunity to play with a lot of national level players,” Wijratne said. “It was a great experience.”
Fellow Warrior teammates were able to learn from the success of Wijratne, and refine their game in ways that Wijratne improved.
“(Wijratne) was a pleasure to work with. She helped the team with their game, and worked with them to improve,” Britton said. “That made my job a lot easier.”
Wijratne and her teammates, along with coach Britton, are optimistic about what next year’s team will be able to accomplish.
They are hoping to surpass the accomplishments of this year, since some the players that will be returning next season have gained the experience of playing in the conference playoffs and some have state finals experience as well.
“Wijratne did tremendously well for us this season,” Britton said. “We’re all looking forward to next year.”