Badminton Family Legacy | 3 Generations

My name is Dennis van Wankum and I was taught badminton at an early age. My father, Ed van Wankum, and my uncle, Fred van Wankum, have been active as trainers and coaches in badminton for many years. As a little boy I already went to clubs and competitions where my father trained. My uncle was active for many years as a top coach at Premier League level at BC Amersfoort. He trained at the BCAmersfoort badminton academy, which included OSM players Elano Nijkamp and of course Kirsten van der Valk, who won the national championship for teams with him in 2013.

Fred is 2nd from the left in this publication from the Clear of January 2011.

Badminton was therefore always present at home. I started playing competitively around the age of ten. At the time I trained under the inspiring leadership of Uun Santosa at OSM. After a few seasons at OSM, and an injury at the age of twelve, I started again at BC Castellum.

Dennis is on the far right of the 2002 youth champions.

To be honest, I feared for a moment that the badminton gene would skip a generation, but fortunately I was completely wrong. Three years ago my eldest daughter started playing badminton. Romy is currently a member of OSM-J8 and also plays for the BSU.

Romy also knows how to win prizes.

As a certified trainer and passionate player, it felt very natural for me to actively contribute to the club again. I now give training on Saturday morning and I have already proudly stood on the sidelines for several Sundays as a trainer and as a father. You hear from me when something could be improved, but just as well (and perhaps even more often) when something is going very well. Fun, development and honesty are my top priorities. After several detours, I still play freely at BC Amersfoort and I play competitively at BC Badso in Soesterberg. For me, badminton remains simply the most fun game there is.

It is great to see how well OSM is currently doing in youth. Unfortunately, I see a different development in many other associations. I wish the top players of OSM many more sporting years and sincerely hope that the seniors will also return to the level of yesteryear.