25 years ago, when the Club Bádminton Oviedo (CBO) school started, very few in Asturias knew what this sport was that is played with a racket and shuttlecock. A quarter of a century later, the club has more players than ever (more than 175), is a fixture in the highest national category – a Division of Honor of which it has won twice, in 2015 and 2021 – and owes Much of its success is due to its strong commitment to grassroots sports, expressed in the growth of schools in which the CBO works with 350 children in 23 schools located in public and charter schools in Oviedo – with the exception of Lugones – The Era–.
«When we started, badminton practically did not exist here, so we had to go school by school spreading it. In the club, we barely had 25 federated players. We understood that we had to have a powerful school,” explains César González, technical director of the CBO and one of the precursors of this sport in Asturias, for which training work is the “basic” pillar that allows the club to compete with the best in the Division. of Honor: «In badminton, as happens in all sports, you either have money or you have talent. We have little of the first, but thanks to the second we can stay ahead.
One of the most distinguished products to emerge from the schools is Alberto Zapico. Despite starting to practice badminton “on the rebound”, he has been captain of the CBO until his retirement at the end of last season. “My first contact with badminton was thanks to my friends, who played and told me to try it,” he says. I was a little reluctant, but I grew to like it, especially thanks to my instructor, who was the one who got me hooked. Two years later, I made the jump to the club. “I remember that time with great affection.”
Laura Álvarez, unlike Zapico, did not go through any of the CBO schools but began playing directly in the club, at the age of eight. The current number one in the national ranking, one of the best players in Spain, did not take long to get hooked on a sport that she considers especially entertaining for the youngest: «I liked it a lot from the first moment. “I had a great time, both playing and with my teammates.” Furthermore, she considers the work of the club’s schools “fundamental”, since it contributes to the dissemination of a “very beautiful and very fun, but not so well-known” sport.
One of those in charge of discovering badminton to Asturian children is Sara Villa. She monitors in many of the CBO schools, she claims that “we educate in sports and teach discipline”, while she claims her contribution to the “conciliation” of families. In her nine years of teaching badminton, Villa has developed methods that are also permeable to the little ones, such as changing the shuttlecock for balloons. “The objective is hand-eye coordination, and for children to feel that it is a game and have fun.” And she warns: there is a possibility of progression: “Last weekend, for example, some boys who started with me at school came third in the Asturias Championship.” Another incentive for schools to recover the 450 children they had before the pandemic.
2023-10-10 02:37:11
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