That Badminton Oviedo is a family team is not just a phrase for the gallery. Its members can attest to this. Carried away by their children’s fans, there are four parents who have been enrolled in the club for years to accompany and help the Carbayona entity as much as possible. Fermín López, Miguel García, Adolfo López and Juan Carlos García, the proud parents, agree on the same. “We saw them play and we ended up getting the bug,” they admit. Now, together with their children, they share the same passion: badminton.
The first story on the eve of Father’s Day is that of Fermín and Alejandro López. “When I was little I tried all kinds of sports. I was struck by the fact that badminton was very entertaining, fast and dynamic. You never got bored,” says Alejandro, the youngest of the family. Always being in tension and the variety of movements that he had to do ended up dazzling him and since he was nine years old he has been wearing the colors of the Oviedo club. “The passion for badminton came from him, until he started I had no idea,” says Fermín, his father, who had played amateur futsal all his life. For him, the big difference compared to other sports is the physical demand, since “here there are much more explosive movements and the court is gigantic for you”. Now he tries to help his son as much as possible, who is runner-up in Spain and wears several individual medals. At 16 years old, Alejandro sees himself with a future with his racket in hand and does not want to disconnect from this world. “Even though I don’t train, I’ll always be there to lend a hand,” he says.
Another father who has a past with a ball at his feet is Juan Carlos García. This father became a coach when his son, Marcos, decided to dedicate himself to the king of sports. But the little one in the house decided to go to the wheel and his mother went after him. “Here you play alone, and it’s something that caught my attention from the beginning,” says Marcos, who has no doubts about his future. “This is going to go on for a long time. My goal is to go to the World Cup in an absolute category, even if they are older than me,” he explains. Juan Carlos couldn’t be happier with his son’s decision. “The respect there is, both in the stands and on the track, is incredible. I’ve played football all my life and it’s very different there. Here, if you hear anything out of tune, they throw you off the track. To educate the younger ones is much better, there is more sportsmanship”, says Marcos’ father.
Olaya García also dreamed of participating in a World Cup, but studies have put the brakes on her aspirations. He is currently in his second year of high school and his goal is to enter Law and Political Science, so it is very difficult for him to combine everything. She was the culprit that her family became fond of badminton. Her brother Iago confirms it. “Since Olaya played and had a good time, I wanted to try. In the end they convinced me and I stayed with badminton. I played football, but I was already bored,” says the youngest of the house, who highlights the good atmosphere that exists between frills.
Olaya’s passion also dragged her father, Miguel. “I, like Yago, also played soccer. When she started playing I was already retired from the sport, but on a campus they let me try and I was not bad at it,” explains the father, who was quickly recruited by the senior badminton team Oviedo and could no longer escape.
“I was lucky that, in the school I went to when I was little, there was badminton as an extracurricular activity. I tried it and I loved it,” says Adolfo López, another of the culprits that Badminton Oviedo is a great family. He, like many of his teammates, also took his first steps with a ball at his feet, but “I started to win things, to improve a lot and I decided to quit football.” “First of all, the speed at which the steering wheel is going catches your attention,” acknowledges the youngster, who is among the ten best in Spain within his category, under-19. His father, Adolfo too, was a great fan of racket sports, and since his son spent so many hours training, he decided to get into the track as well. “Until the injuries leave me, I will continue playing,” he joked. Like the rest of the parents, he ended up getting involved in the day-to-day life of the club. “In the end, help is always needed. Since they needed people, I also became a referee. He is bearable, although there are times when it is difficult for me to see the steering wheel,” he reveals.
The young generations of Badminton Oviedo have demonstrated the power of conviction they have. Thanks to them, the club can count on referees for its tournaments and with extra help when working in the facilities. In addition, for Father’s Day on Sunday they start with an advantage. They know that if they give their parents a set of shuttlecock and racket they will hit the spot.
