by Derek Topper
On Tuesday, November 5, 2013, in the Long Beach High School Gymnasium, the county championship tournament for the Varsity Boys Badminton was held and the Marines experienced great success. Juniors Justin Barry, Andrew Klang and the team of Josh Ehrlich and Ross Inselberg won the county championship for second singles, third singles and first doubles respectively.
The players all received all-county honors for their achievements as well. The team, which lost six starting members, managed to experience great successes despite losing top players. Despite a team record of six wins and eight losses, the three championships gave the Marines more wins than any other team in the county.
Justin Barry, who had never lost a match in his two years on the team prior to this year, 
overcame losses to the Tigers of Great Neck South and the Jayhawks of Jericho, yet was able to defeat both in the county championship. Despite being the third seed, Barry was able to win his first match by a score of 21-12, 22-20. Facing a tough final opponent in Jericho, he was able to defeat his opponents by a score of 21-12, 21-17, which allowed him to secure his second straight county championship, with last years coming in first doubles.
Andrew Klang rolled through the season with a record of 13-1, and securing the top seed out of all of Nassau County’s third singles players. His sole loss came against Jericho High School, who he was able to defeat in three sets, to garner the county title, by claiming his final set 22-20.
Jericho and Great Neck South, two powerhouse teams defeated the doubles pairing of Josh Ehrlich and Ross Inselberg, earlier in the season. However, the Marines were able to extract their revenge and defeated both of those teams to win the county title, by a score of 21-14, 24-22 in their first round against Jericho, and 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 in the final against Great Neck South. This was the third consecutive year that Long Beach has won the championship at first doubles.
For the first time ever, the county tournament was held at Long Beach High School, in its newly completed gym, following Superstorm Sandy. In remembrance of the storm and all of the equipment was lost, the team has not cleaned the sand, from the bottom of their scoreboards, that came as a result of the storm, as a symbolic gesture of “their roots.” Overall, the team had a fantastic year despite losing a majority of the team’s best players, and thus secured three championships, despite a “rebuilding year.”
THE TIDE 