Korean Student Association Designs Badminton Shuttlecock Capable Of Striking Basketball Courts

Story by Will Sharpe 

| Published Sep 8, 2009

The Campus Recreation Center has long been a breeding ground for student competition, be it within Cook Pavilion or on the ping pong tables. For Korean Student Association Vice-President and racket-sports enthusiast Chin-Hwa “Michael” Lee, that competition needed something more.

“Badminton is the fastest-paced game played at the Rec,” said Lee. “If you’ve ever climbed the rock wall, you know this to be true.”

Lee came to Lincoln in 2006 having never so much as touched a shuttlecock before garnering a reputation among rec center basketball players and rock wall climbers as the fastest Asian-American they had ever seen.

“Fastest Asian kid I’ve ever seen, hands down,” remarked UNL senior Marcus Wade. “I used to come up here to ball just so I could watch him out my peripherals.”

A mainstay on Campus Rec. badminton courts, Lee became heavily involved with UNL’s Korean Student Association, providing him with an outlet to pass on his passion for high-octane badminton as well as an environment conducive to reinventing the game altogether. But it is this very exuberance for the sport that has Campus Rec. officials and athletes alike up in arms. Early last week during a routine pick-up game, Lee debuted his Tapeodong Minton-master, a revolutionary shuttlecock engineered by Lee and a team composed of some of the Korean Student Association’s most respected aerospace engineering majors.

“I needed a (shuttle) cock that could keep up with me,” Lee explained. “Tapeodong Minton-master sliced through the air like a dagger.”

It’s not the Tapeodong Minton-master’s unprecedented zip that has rec center regulars concerned, but its seemingly limitless striking range. Lee and the KSA insist that they are merely making an effort to expand their peaceful badminton program, but for basketball players and rock wall climbers, the shuttlecocks are getting a bit too close for comfort.

“How can I hit free-throws with shuttlecocks whizzing by my face?” begged sophomore Kyle Garves, a rec center regular. “Just the other day I was moving in for a lay-up before getting ‘cocked square in the eye. I’ve just never seen shuttlecocks pack such a punch.”

Campus Recreation officials plan to convene late this week to discuss possible sanctions against Lee, the Korean Student Association and its badminton ambitions. Sanctions could include decreased KSA funding, total removal of the rec center’s badminton nets or seizure of Lee’s level 100, holographic Charizard card. Lee, however, remains hell-bent on tightening his stranglehold on campus rec badminton.

“Tapeodong Minton-master is only beginning,” he swore. “We are committed to shuttlecocking anyone who tries to stop us.”