Lisa Ward-Knechtel (1960-present).
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Stan Bischof.
Almost a ‘firecracker’ due to being born on July 3rd, Lisa had a wonderful childhood in the small town of Mebane, North Carolina. Two loving parents and three older brothers made sure she was safe and sound, along with being just a bit spoiled! Lisa’s first memories of badminton are as a youngster playing in the backyard with her mom. The height of the net was about volleyball height (probably because the ground was so hard) and she loved running around hitting the red rubber tip of the plastic birdie with her wooden racket!
After graduating from high school and being awarded a basketball scholarship to Wake Forest University, Lisa was introduced to the rules and regulations of the sport of badminton as a Physical Education major. It was during one of the teacher preparation courses that she first saw the sport played on a regulation court. She was amazed at the variation of shots and strategies the lower net provided. She asked one of the shot demonstrators to play with her and quickly learned how those shots could be combined to create many different types of rallies. Lisa doesn’t remember scoring any points in that eye opening experience (maybe the other player purposely hit the bird in the net… one time). It really didn’t matter, she was hooked.
While at Wake Forest, Lisa volunteered to work with their Cardiac Rehabilitation Program, where she learned to love working with heart patients. This experience led to Lisa earning a Master of Science in Education degree from Virginia Tech, specializing in Cardiac Rehabilitation. She set herself up for either a career in teaching or working with heart patients. The job market lead her into teaching, but part of her heart continued to be rooted in those heart patients.
After becoming a Physical Education and Health teacher, Lisa volunteered to help with the local and state level North Carolina Senior Games. She helped with tennis, became a Race-Walking Judge, and of course, assisted with badminton. It was at the local Senior Games that Lisa met a group of senior badminton players who became known as the ‘Bad Boys of Badminton.’ They would help launch a badminton instructional program at Lisa’s school that introduced many students and teachers to the sport, and became the mainstay in her teaching for 30 years. Throughout those years, she guided and assisted in many Professional Development teacher trainings on the local, state and national levels in the United States from the East Coast to the Mid-West.
Retiring from education a bit early to help start the first dedicated badminton-only facility in North Carolina, Badminton NC, and Lisa learned a lot about the business side of badminton. Many hours of working and playing were filled with satisfaction and pride at seeing so many adult and junior players have a quality place to enjoy playing the sport.
After leaving the business, Lisa assisted her husband, Paul Knechtel, in creating and implementing a very successful not-for-profit badminton program called Badminton Goes Viral (BGV). After a pilot program in six United States locales, the project determined that Alaska would be a great frontier for badminton. Thousands of children have been introduced to badminton through BGV’s outreach to schools, school districts, and off-road communities in Alaska… and the program continues to grow.
Lisa was a competitive player and enjoyed many years of national and international competition before a back injury sidelined her. She returned to teaching and continues to get her competition fix by teaching and coaching junior players for local tournaments in Alaska and at some point, beyond. As has always been the case throughout her teaching career, at Lisa’s school badminton has more player participation than any other sport!
Lisa has been an active member of the United States Badminton Education Foundation Board of Directors since 2011 and continues to teach students, coach, train teachers, and promote the great sport of badminton in multiple ways.
Maybe she was born a ‘firecracker’ after all.
© 1995-2026. All Rights Reserved. Stan Bischof (stan@worldbadminton.com). Last updated 06 June 2025 17:24.