John's Journal: From Ukraine To Bloomington Kennedy, She’s No. 1

Seven time zones and almost 5,000 miles separate Minnesota from Ukraine. All those miles translate to more than 8,000 kilometers, and this is where we introduce you to Kateryna Mykhailovych.

I met the senior from Bloomington Kennedy late Tuesday afternoon after a badminton match that brought the Kennedy Eagles to Burnsville High School.

I interviewed Kateryna, the top-ranked singles player in Minnesota, after she extended her perfect record this season to 13-0. We talked about her family’s move to Minnesota three years ago, her love of being on the badminton team, her high-level schoolwork and more.

As we parted ways, I had one more question: “Kateryna, how tall are you?’

She smiled and responded by saying, “158 centimeters. Which is about 5 feet, 2 inches.”

No matter how you measure it, her story is remarkable. With war raging in Ukraine after the nation was invaded by Russia, she came to the Twin Cities with her mother, grandmother and brother while her father stayed in their home country. A brother of Kateryna’s mother has lived in Minnesota for a long time, she said, so getting here was not complicated; a train ride from their hometown of Lviv in western Ukraine to Poland, a flight to Germany and then a flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Kateryna, who also plays tennis for the Eagles in the fall, is a high-achieving student who has taken college-level courses and plans to major in mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota.

She had played a little bit of badminton while growing up in Ukraine, and when she came out for the Kennedy team three years ago, she didn’t make an immediate impact.

“We have so many girls who play, 40 or 50 or 60 or 70,” said Eagles coach Todd Kennedy (yes, Coach Kennedy coaches at Kennedy). “I remember her as a sophomore but I don't remember her game very well. She started out playing exhibition matches, which is kind of for beginners; everyone gets a chance to play and then move up to JV after that. She was kind of completely off the radar as far as someone who might be a potential varsity player.”

Kateryna played varsity matches last season, worked at the sport during the offseason and came into this spring as a vastly improved athlete.

“That's been pretty cool,” Kennedy said. “Last year she was a solid varsity player for us, but the progression from last year to this year … she came back at the beginning of the year, and I was like, ‘OK. Wow, that's different.’ She had been working, I think she played all the time all winter, just at clubs, at open gyms.”

She said, “Consistency is important. I'm practicing a lot during the season and after the season, so I think it's very helpful.”

Kennedy is a strong badminton program, started 10 years ago with Kennedy as head coach. The large roster is under the guidance of a coaching staff that also includes Angela Taing, Annabelle Benitez, Belle Sahadeo and Jack Kennedy (the head coach’s son).

The Eagles are ninth in the team rankings and Morgan Aufdenkamp is eighth among individuals. Kennedy will face a big test on Wednesday when top-ranked Edina travels to Bloomington.

Kateryna’s English is very good. She is one of many Kennedy students who were born in other countries or whose families are relatively new to this country. During the 2024 state wrestling tournament I wrote about Tommaso Costantini, a Kennedy foreign-exchange student from Bologna, Italy (https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-wrestling-journey-italy-x) and during this year’s state wrestling tournament I profiled Mir Amiri, whose family fled Afghanistan (https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-refugee-wrestler-makes-statement-state).

The top player on the badminton team is popular with her teammates and classmates.

“She fits in really well,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know how many countries we represent in our school, so it’s not like, ‘Oh, that’s the girl who’s from Ukraine.’ She doesn’t stand out at all in school. She obviously stands out on the court, but she fits in well with the other girls. Her personality and disposition is probably kind of a little more quiet, but she works with the girls. She will play with them a little bit. She’s a captain and a leader.”

Coach Kennedy doesn’t compare his own experience to Kateryna’s, but he also came to this country from elsewhere. He left his native Canada to get an education and play hockey at St. Cloud State, met his wife here and never left.

He grew up playing badminton, has taught the game for years as a physical education teacher at Kennedy and was the easy choice to lead the program since its inception. He also has coached girls golf, which these days is a cooperative program with Bloomington Jefferson.

“I coached girls golf for 20 years and then our numbers went from 50 to 40 to 30 to 20 as the numbers went down,” Coach Kennedy said. “And then, literally, it was like, ‘OK we’re not going to have enough girls golfers.’ It looked like I was going to have some time off in the spring. Our AD then, Matt Hanson (now at Shakopee), called me and said, ‘OK TK, do you want to start a badminton program now that we don’t have golf?’

“I was like, ‘Sure.’ So we started with 10 or 12 girls 10 years ago. And then 20 girls, 30 girls, 40 girls and 50 girls. The sport just exploded. It’s an easy sport to play. You don’t have to play it growing up, you can be athletic, you can be non-athletic.”

Kateryna came to the sport – and the country – three years ago, hoping to have fun, make new friends and have a great experience. Becoming the state’s top badminton radar was not part of the plan.

“I didn’t have any expectations,” she said. “I want to be involved in sport so I decided to play badminton, because it was a familiar sport. I kind of knew how to play it. And I like it. More people, more fun.”

--MSHSL staff member John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Bluesky at johnmilleamn and listen to “Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]