Southern Section Badminton Playoffs : These Friends Double Up on the Competition : Garden Grove High School’s Binh Tran and Phi Ta Are the Team to Beat

For Binh Tran, it started as a game he could play with friends. For Phi Ta, it was a way to practice so he could beat his older brother.

Tran and Ta, of Garden Grove High School, are the top-seeded doubles team in the Southern Section 4-A badminton individual preliminaries, which begin at 11:30 a.m. today at Cal State Dominguez Hills and continue Saturday with the finals starting at 10:30.

The two started playing as a doubles team last year and had immediate success, reaching the Southern Section quarterfinals. This year, they have dominated.

In doubles games, they are 45-0 after they swept two matches in the first round of the Southern Section 4-A team playoffs Thursday. They have won three tournaments: Garden Grove, Chino and Estancia.

“It’s still fun and competitive at the same time,” Tran said. “There’s no pressure (in being the top-seeded team) until play starts.”

Vicki Toutz, Garden Grove badminton coach, said, “I think they’ve got the best shot (at winning the Southern Section doubles). If they lose, they know it’s not the end of the world, but it means a great deal to them when they win.”

Tran, a senior, came to the United States from Vietnam with his family in 1981. Ta, a junior, arrived with his family in 1980, settling in El Monte. They moved to Garden Grove in 1985 and shared a home for a year with the Tran family. The two boys developed a close relationship.

Toutz is impressed with the way they have succeeded as a team.

“The game is so quick that you have to learn to react together,” Toutz said. “They have developed a good relationship on and off the court.”

Part of the success is that their talents complement one another.

“Binh has exceptional jumping ability--he probably has a 30-inch vertical jump,” Toutz said. “And Phi is exceptionally quick.”

Another is that “they take coaching so well, they apply it well,” she said.

Friends persuaded Tran to join the badminton team when he was a freshman, and he has played for four years. But Tran did not attempt to influence Ta, who did not play his freshman year.

“My sophomore year, (Phi’s brother, Viet) kept telling me it was a tough game, so we played and I got tired. He beat me in two games,” Ta said. “The only reason why I wanted to play was to beat him.”

Viet Ta played for Garden Grove and graduated last year. Despite beating all comers in doubles matches, Phi Ta says he still can’t beat his brother in singles.

But he’s not concerned with beating his brother today, as he and Tran are the team to beat.