Garden Grove Falls in Final as Toutz Coaches Last Match

Garden Grove badminton Coach Vicki Toutz watched from the far corner of the Orange County Badminton Club, away from her team and spectators, as the Argonauts lost the final match of the day Thursday and suffered a heartbreaking 10-9 loss to Alhambra Keppel in the Southern Section Division I championships.

Toutz, who is retiring after 31 years of coaching the Argonauts, tried to console her players, who broke down in tears after the match. Toutz was composed while being interviewed by reporters, but when her voice began cracking it was obvious she was struggling to maintain a tough front. After the awards presentation, Toutz began to cry while talking to Keppel Coach Harold George, who was also coaching his last match of his 13-year career.

“We have been through it all this year,” Toutz said. “We had a lot of difficulties with this team. But, they played through it all. It really shows me the character they have.”

The match wasn’t decided until the final game. Keppel (19-0), which won its third consecutive title and eighth in the last nine years, took an early 4-1 lead, but second-seeded Garden Grove (18-1) rallied to close the gap to 4-3, when Tam Nguyen upset Xiao Hoang in boys’ singles. Hoang, a finalist in the section individual championships who had beaten Nguyen twice this season, won the first game, 15-7. Nguyen fought back and took the next two, 15-7, 15-10. Nguyen later defeated Binh Tran, 15-10, 10-15, 15-8, tying the score at 7-7.

Every time Keppel took the lead, Garden Grove came back. After their girls’ doubles teams swept, the Argonauts took a 9-8 lead. Keppel tied it, 9-9, going into the final match in boys’ doubles, pitting Keppel’s No. 1 team of Nelson Chu and Terry Au against Garden Grove’s No. 2 team, Savang Chea and Phoung Tran.

Chea and Tran, both seniors, won the first game, 17-14, giving the Argonauts the advantage, before Keppel rallied for a 15-6 victory in the second game. In the deciding game with Chu and Au leading 7-5, Chu suddenly went down, holding his right wrist, after missing a slam.

While Chea and Tran tried to keep warm, Chu was tended to by the trainer. The Southern Section guidelines allowing 10-minute injury time before a default, Toutz saw her chance to hang a final banner.

“Not at all,” said Toutz, when asked if a default would have ruined the title for her. “I don’t want to see a kid get hurt, but I would take it. Ten years from now, nobody would remember except that we won, 10-9.”

But Chu returned and the match continued. Although his slams were noticeably weaker, they won five consecutive points to take a 12-5 lead. Chu and Au won the match when Chea’s final slam went into the net, giving Keppel a 15-8 victory and the title.

“I didn’t want to win by default,” Chea said. “I felt sympathy for him. The final shot was all my fault. I overkilled it.”

While Chea and Tran lost the final match, it may have been George’s decision to move Christine Chung from doubles to singles that gave Keppel the one point they needed.

Playing at No. 2 doubles, Chung defeated Garden Grove’s No. 2 Nancy Nguyen, 11-7, 13-10.

“When I made that move I told [Chung] all I expected of her was one point,” George said. “And she got it.”