Sad Loss

Edith Hayman


Edith Hayman has passed away last Thursday, March 5, 2020. She was 88

Edith Hayman is an Ontario badminton icon - she has spent her life mainly in Brantford but with a stay in Ottawa.

Edith has enriched badminton in Ontario as a player, a coach but mainly as a builder of the sport where she has used all her playing and coaching skills to develop programs and encourage both young and “older” players to play and love the game of badminton.

Edith started the sport of badminton at the age of 18 in Brantford and by the age of 23 she was winning badminton tournaments on a regular basis.

Edith won the Ottawa  District Badminton Association “Open” singles and mixed for 4 consecutive years from 1955 to 1958 and won uncountable other titles around the province. In 1960 Edith took on a role that would mark her future badminton career - Edith became the ODBA Juniors Development Chairman.

Edith continued her badminton career in Ottawa as a player and volunteer until 1967 when she moved back to Brantford. In Brantford Edith “took off” and has been involved with the Brantford Junior Badminton Club since 1967 and has trained 38 club members to NCCP levels 1&2 and can count among her students over 175 National, Provincial, District, OFSSA and CWOSSA champions. In addition to the work that she has done at her own club Edith has trained over 200 NCCP coaches from around the province of Ontario. For the past 40 years Edith has established and run over 90 High Performance and Intermediate camps for players - every Christmas, March break and Summer Edith can be found hard at work planning, organizing, coaching and generally being a friend to badminton players looking to her for help with their game. In her “spare time” Edith in 1976 started a “Summer Play Badminton” program which lasted 5 weeks from the first week in July. A combination of coaching and games made badminton a year round sport in the Brantford region. The successful summer program not only gave players a place to play in the summer but also allowed young developing coaches a venue and a chance to work with keen students. This program was set up on a pay as you play basis and over the years has had an average daily attendance of between 30-40 9 to 16 year olds. In the early 1980’s Edith initiated the “Teaching the Teachers Enrichment Program” which from humble beginnings now is offered 8 times per year with an average attendance of 15-20 teachers and 30-40 students per session. In 1976 Edith also initiated the “Elementary School Badminton Program” which makes badminton part of the curriculum and which now consists of over 36 schools. This program culminates each year in May with over 2,500 elementary school children participating in a month long tournament. In 2003 the Brant County Elementary School Athlete Association named this event the “EDITH HAYMAN Junior Badminton Championships”.

  As of 2004, Edith has been honored as recipient of:

Coaching Excellence awards from:

Sport Excellence awards from:

Edith Hayman continues to inspire so many people that her life touches until her death.

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