Senior Spotlight: Clovis East badminton player uses sport to overcome tragedy

CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- "Badminton isn't only for Asian people, cause that's what a lot of people think," says Clovis East senior Kang Yang. "Like that's the stereotype."

At this point, Yang is used to having to explain her sport of badminton.

"You don't have to know the sport to play because you will learn as you go," she said.

Yang played four years on varsity and helped lead the Timberwolves to a Valley title her freshman year.

Her coach says she spent the summer improving her fundamentals and looked to be even better in 2020.

Things are better for Yang than they were back in May of 2018. It was then that she and her family lost their home to a fire.

Just hours after that tragedy, the Clovis East community came together to support her play on the court.

"It was so fun to see because they had that wolf pack and they kept cheering me on," Yang said. "It was so fun."

That season the Timberwolves would lose in the final, but a year after that fire, she was able to lead east to another Valley championship.

"I actually thought that people on the team wouldn't be that comforting, but they were more so than I thought," she said.