María O’Mullony (Omu) after three seasons full of success, but also marked by injuries, returns “home” to recover mentally and return to enjoy handball close to her family.
– 24 years old and this will be your tenth season in the first division. What is the key apart from a lot of work?
– It’s work, perseverance, even if there are bad moments, because there are in all seasons, being able to recover from them. Many of the seasons I have been injured and I have managed to get up and get to where I am now.
– What would you say to that girl who was starting to play handball as a pastime at school?
– Keep it up, when I started playing handball I was pretty bad, although I combined it with Judo, having more fun in handball, playing with my friends, made me opt for it. So what I would tell her is to go ahead and trust her.
– You just won three leagues. Do you think you have an extra responsibility in a team with so many girls in formation?
– Yes, I think that in the end experience is a very important part of what I can contribute this year, very young people arrive who have not played much in the Honor Division and I think that both I and Amaia, Tere, who are veteran players, It is a part that we can contribute. Having been in Bera Bera, winning three leagues and playing European competition is something that I am going to be able to contribute and I am sure it will come in handy.
– Peñas is clear, the objective is to be eighth, but always with ambition for more. What is your objective?
– I always say that I don’t have to set a fixed goal, because the team is very young, many new faces and that the Aula from the beginning is not going to be the same as the one that will reach the end of the season. But as an objective we obviously have to play the Play-Off, I don’t contemplate not playing it, I also think we can make war and whoever is going to face us has to be afraid.
– The four seasons you were at the club you were the top scorer. Did you set that same goal, at an individual level, on your return?
-My individual goals are to feel like a player again, to enjoy myself above all, because that’s when I think I’m the best player, and that injuries respect me. If I’m here to give one hundred percent, I’ll be able to score goals, give assists… whatever the team needs.
– What does Peñas ask of you on the track?
-He asks me above all for experience, to help young girls, I think it is a very important part and that I am good at doing it, I like to help people, in the end what he asks of me is to score goals, but I really like that they demand of me, the more they demand of me, the more I give the type. Whatever you ask of me, I hope I can give it to you.
– And outside ask you for something?
– The locker room is just as important as it is on the track, having a strong locker room, with good vibes that we get along with, that we make plans, that shows on the track. The veteran goes to that locker room point, to create that good atmosphere.
– Peñas commented that the ideal thing for him would be to sign young players and players with experience. Despite your youth, do you feel prepared to play that role with a more experienced profile?
– Yes, I feel comfortable in the role of veteran. For example, Laura Bazco is seventeen years old and I look at her and think, at that age I would have loved to have someone by my side to encourage or advise me. Or she to me, although I am older, helping each other is super important.
María O´Mullony, Caja Rural Aula Valladolid player. /
– Your time at Bera Bera, apart from being successful in terms of titles, has also been marked by injuries. Are you one hundred percent recovered?
– Right now I am one hundred percent, obviously my body is not the same now as when I played before in Valladolid, but I consider myself to be a very hard-working person, I am aware that I have these injuries and that I have to work so as not to suffer new ones injuries, I have internalized it and work on it much more.
– After these injuries, are you mentally strong?
– Yes, it is true that the year I broke my shoulder was very bad, mentally very hard, but I think that having overcome that I have become a much stronger person. I feel very strong mentally and I think I can go much further.
– That the back injury coincided with the confinement was a great stumbling block for recovery?
– The problem was that the operation was delayed, in the end with the Covid the hospitals were bursting and there was no room. But once I got down to it I recovered very well and very quickly. I thought it would be slower, but I started the season normally, I even played the first game.
– How did you work those months to keep fit?
– The confinement was difficult, but it is true that we had resources, because Bera Bera brought us home a stationary bike, dumbbells, rubber bands… we had that possibility that perhaps someone else would not have had. Luckily we were able to maintain physical work.
– She is a very vertical and decisive player in 1X1. After those injuries, have you considered a change in the style of play?
– No, it’s my way of playing, it’s that I don’t know how to play if it’s not like that. Yes, they tell me that they thought that I would change my way of playing after the injuries, or that a change would be good for me, but it is my way of playing, I am the player that I am because of it.
– Although it is a top-level sport, on some occasion you have commented that enjoying yourself is very important. At some point did you stop enjoying yourself and did you think about quitting?
– Yes, when you’ve been injured for three years in a row you think about it and a thousand things go through your head, when you’re in a bad way your mind always goes against you. I said, it’s that maybe life is telling me that I have to leave it and that this is not my thing. But since I’m that dumb, so keep telling me because I want to keep playing. But yes, I have been about to leave it this year because I did not see myself mentally trained to continue, luckily I have managed to get up with a lot of work and I feel strong.
– In the presentation of the season, you commented that having your family close is always an incentive. If your family were not in Zamora, would you have returned?
– In January, February I thought about taking a year off because mentally I was ‘short’, if I hadn’t been an hour away from home, and I was four hours away, then I wouldn’t have considered coming back. What I wanted was to be close to home, to be with my family, so that if one day I finish training and I feel like having dinner with my family, I’ll take the car and I’ll be there in an hour. That way of disconnecting is going to be very positive for me right now.
– And if Peñas wasn’t the coach, would he be here?
– Peñas has shot a lot. With Miguel I have an excellent relationship, a lot of trust, he has always behaved very well with me. These three years he knows have been difficult and he was always there to call me and worry.
– Do you think that your return, after being in the leading team in Spain, can be a stimulus for the youngest to continue in this club for several years and thus grow the team?
– If I were in your position and they told me that a person who has been a league champion and who has played important things is coming, I would try to stay, with everything that person can teach you, it is a very important stimulus, everything that can contribute.
– How do you handle, being the club’s star signing, the commitments with the sponsors?
I like it. I like being told that I have to go to one side or the other and I think it’s important. Being a close person leads to a good relationship with sponsors and is very positive.
– Do you think it will leave a mark on the city?
– Hopefully, I wish so, that will be that things have gone well, both for me and for the team
– Will we be able to see him in an international league?
– Yes, I’ve always said that I would love to play outside of Spain, it’s trying new things, another style of play… Now it doesn’t enter my head, in the summer I never thought about it. I like being at home, but if I do well this season, the next one too, and mentally I feel strong enough to leave Spain alone, I will do it.
– With the national team he won Gold at the Mediterranean Games. Is the goal Paris 2024?
– It seems a long way off to me, but a dream, it is something that all the players would love to be able to play, if the injuries respect me and I can be one hundred percent I will be able to opt for it.
– After ten years playing in the top flight, have you noticed a growth in interest in women’s handball?
– When I started playing there was a lot of money, many foreigners played in Spain and there was a drop and I think it’s on the rise again, advertising, broadcasting the game on Teledeporte on Fridays… They are necessary progress so that in the end women’s handball increases in Spain.
