It’s difficult to win in sports. It’s even more difficult to do it starting from scratch. Which is exactly what Chandler badminton coach Lois Emshoff has done since she founded the program over 40 years ago.

Emshoff was first introduced to the sport while attending Agua Fria in Avondale.

“My P.E. teacher was also my tennis coach and we didn’t have a badminton team,” Emshoff said. “One day she decided to put the tennis players on a badminton court to play and whoever won got to go to states. Well, I won.”

Emshoff immediately fell in love with the sport and continued to hone her skills while attending Arizona State University, taking a badminton class her sophomore year. She eventually was recruited to join the team. Emshoff was a multisport athlete for the Sun Devils, lettering in badminton and basketball after playing in the program’s inaugural season her senior year.

After graduating from ASU in 1965, Emshoff began teaching and coaching badminton at Dysart in El Mirage.

After just five years at Dysart, Emshoff captured her first state title as well as gold medals in doubles and singles competition.

The following year Emshoff accepted a teaching job at Chandler and was also tasked with starting a badminton program.

“It was hard starting from scratch,” Emshoff said. “It took me four years to win a regional title and then I won back-to-back state titles in 1978 and 1979.”

Although Emshoff retired from teaching in 2006, she still remains the only badminton coach in school history and has been inducted into the Agua Fria Hall of Fame, the City of Chandler Hall of Fame and the Arizona Badminton Hall of Fame in recognition of her stellar coaching career.

“I enjoy working with the girls. My biggest accomplishment is taking somebody who has never had a racket in their hand and by the time they’re a junior or senior they are competing for a medal at state,” Emshoff said. “It’s very rewarding for me.”

Her players enjoy competing for her as well, including junior standout Isabel Honzay.

“(Playing for her) is incredible because she loves the sport so much,” Honzay said. “Her passion pours onto her kids and it’s fun playing for her.”

Junior Katherine Chou transferred from rival Hamilton last summer and remembers watching Emshoff from afar last season. “I remember when Hamilton and Chandler had a game last year,” Chou said. “Chandler had a lot of school spirit and unity with their team and I thought that was really cool.”

Due to transfer rules she is required to sit out the first seven games of the season. But thanks to the support of Emshoff, she is still actively involved with the team during her time off.

“I was really upset I couldn’t participate for the beginning of the season and the fact that she made me an assistant coach for these games so I can still be part of the team really meant a lot to me.”

Emshoff cares as much about how her players are doing off the court as she does when they are in the heat of competition, “I love my girls, I always tell them, ‘I’m your second mother,’” Emshoff said.

“She’s so kind but she’s also incredibly honest about everything,” Honzay said. “She loves to focus on mental game not only in badminton but also in life and preaches on the importance of having confidence in everything we do.”

Chou was surprised by how invested Emshoff is in her players, “On the first day I came in and she sat me down and talked to me about goals that I had both personally and in badminton and I thought that was really cool that she cared about how I was both on and off the court.”

Emshoff’s genuine compassion has resonated with her players over the years and created bonds in which she cherishes more than any banner or ring she could ever win.

“The rewarding thing is that I have so many girls come back to see me,” Emshoff said. “They come back, they call me up, they send me Christmas cards, they come to my matches if they know when they are. It makes me feel that I’ve touched them somehow and made an impact on their lives.”

With the amount of people Emshoff has touched over her 51 years of coaching, it’s safe to say that this Hall of Fame coach is also a hall of fame person.