Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK's Michael Li wins Nassau boys badminton championship
Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK's Michael Li reacts after defeating Great Neck South’s Arthur Xu in the Nassau boys badminton championship on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, in Plainview. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Michael Li found himself in this position a season ago. Same opponent, same venue, same stakes.
The Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK junior was able to alter the outcome this year, defeating Great Neck South’s Arthur Xu, 21-17, 21-17, in the Nassau boys badminton individual championship at Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School on Saturday afternoon.
“I’ve been trying to achieve this for the past four years,” Li said. “The first year I made the quarterfinal, second year the semis and last year I lost in the final. This year I can finally say that I am a county champion.”
Li entered as the second seed and defeated Jericho’s Aiden Chen in the semifinal, 21-8, 21-8. Top-seeded Xu defeated Manhasset’s Gordon Chen, 21-9, 21-16.
“I was obviously very nervous coming in after the loss last year,” Li said. “I really didn’t want to lose again, but I knew I just needed to play my game. Don’t worry about anything else, because in the end all that matters is I do my best.”
Li got out to a quick start and took the first set of the final, 21-17. Xu led the second set 16-13, but after a close shot was ruled out a point was given to Li and the junior made his run. The second seed closed the match on an 8-1 run and let out a scream, celebrating his victory.
“This was special to see. He’s a great kid and he worked hard for this,” Nassau badminton coordinator and Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK coach Jenna Cavuto said. “Earlier this summer he said he wanted to do this, not just for himself, but to give me something special in my last year [coaching]. This was a great gift.”
“I wanted to do my best to give her this achievement, having a county champion that she coached,” Li said. “It meant a lot to me to give her something worth being proud of.”
In a matchup of the top two seeds in the doubles bracket, Jericho’s Justin Liu and Henry Qiu defeated Great Neck South’s Aidan Wu and Jason Chuck, 21-19, 21-14.
Top seeded Liu and Qiu had been defeated by the Jericho duo in both regular-season matchups, but didn't lack any confidence coming into the final.
“In the regular season we just kept losing to them and it was always in two sets,” Liu said. "But our mindset was that this would be the day. That today, we would finally beat them.”
“Our coach really pushed us to our limits in practice. We did a lot of running and footwork,” Qui said. “And like coach always says, ‘hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard.' ”
Liu and Qiu defeated Herrick’s Jack Chen and Arnold Cao in the semifinals. Wu and Chuck defeated Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK’s Ryan Bak and Anson Huang.
Chen and Cao won the third-place match in doubles, while Aidan Chen took third in singles.
“I think we also had to win the mental game against ourselves,” Qiu said. “We needed to work harder and we needed to go past what we believed our limits were.”
Christopher Matias covers high school sports for Newsday after spending time in Athletic Facilities and Operation at St. John’s and in Sports Information at CUNY York college.
