Maddyn Johnstone-Thomas is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism Student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com.

Walking into the Mountain View gym, there is a plethora of state and regional banners covering almost every aspect of the walls. There are only two banners for the badminton team dating back to 1989 (state runner-up) and 2005 (regional champions).

Heading into her eighth-year coaching badminton, coach Trisha Ellsworth has one goal for the season—add her own banner to the wall.

Eight years ago, Ellsworth didn’t even know the rules for badminton.  

“My whole background is volleyball,” Ellsworth said. “I played volleyball in college and I coached it for 20 years. I had a career changing injury that had kept me away from volleyball and it led me to badminton. Mountain View needed a coach and I needed something to do so I thought that I would learn enough to do it.”

During her time at Mountain View, Ellsworth has taught physical education, weight training, racquet sports and aerobics. She had only coached volleyball and track before making the switch over to badminton. The coaching appeal for badminton is different than what Ellsworth had previously experienced.

“I’ve grown up and had all of this experience in team sports where the coach has to make a lot of decisions about who gets to play and how much,” Ellsworth said. “This sport (badminton) takes a lot of my feelings out of it. The kids are all playing each other. I have opinions, but it doesn’t even matter. It just comes down to black and white statistics. I just get to work with everyone and cheer for everyone.”

Many of her players, including senior Danae Peters, have been playing with Ellsworth since their freshman year.

“She’s just super nice,” Peters said. “She likes to work us and make the best we can be. She is so easy to talk to. I can talk to her about anything. I can come to her with anything, no worries.”

Senior Paige Morrison started playing with Ellsworth during her sophomore year after she transferred from another school where she previously played badminton.

“I definitely have improved a ton because of her coaching,” said Morrison. “Before sophomore year started to now, I have exceled so much because of her training. Coach always works us super hard every day and if we’re struggling with something, she makes us work on it constantly until we get it. She’s just always there. She’s like a mom. She’s always there to lift us up.”

Ellsworth cherishes her role.

“I get to see them develop from shy and lacking confidence to four years later and being the best players on the team and grow and pass on their knowledge and lead the team," Ellsworth said. "It gets our tradition of Mountain View badminton alive and thriving.”

Ellsworth said certain colleges in Arizona are offering scholarships to play badminton. Even if the girls don’t end up playing, she believes there’s value in playing.

“It shows perseverance and to keep fighting when you’re down and not give up,” Ellsworth said. “Sometimes things are going good and sometimes they aren’t. It shows how mental toughness, almost more than physical toughness to me.”

To prepare for her job, Ellsworth went to multiple coaching clinics, talked with colleagues and met with people that knew badminton.

Ellsworth finds the sport to be unique.

“You have to be strong and physical and have so much agility, but you have to have so much finesse,” Ellsworth said. “There’s so much strategy involved that when you see them playing you think they should do something different. It’s so much different when you’re out in the match. The respect that I have for these girls and how they make it look easy I would challenge anyone to try.”