If not for karate, Matteo Rocca might never have prospered in badminton.
Some six years ago or so, the 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School was enticed to tag along with one of his fellow karate participants, a young lad who also happened to partake in the training of club badminton.
Now a two-time city high school champion and an alternate with the regional squad that competed at the Ontario Winter Games a few months back, Rocca would begin workouts with the Sudbury Junior Badminton Club before ever testing the sport out at the school level of play.
“I did it kind of backwards,” he said recently, having earned a silver medal at Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA) last week, losing to North Bay standout Zak Dufresne-Nappert. “Most players pick it up at the school and then make their way to the club.”
It was a very interesting dynamic indeed.
“I walked into the gym (at St Benedict – home of the Sudbury Club), looked around and was pretty intimidated, if I am going to be honest,” said Rocca.
With plans to head to Laurentian University, the starting point for Rocca was not a whole lot different than any other young badminton player.
“The first focus was just making contact with the bird; the destination of the bird really wasn’t all that important,” he said. “The first year, I did not take it too seriously. I was just kind of getting the hang of the sport – but I adapted pretty quickly.”
By the time he was in Grade 8, Rocca would be earning accolades locally, capturing the boys’ singles division at the St. Anne Angels Intermediate Badminton Tournament.
“In my second year, I played in NOBA (Northern Ontario Badminton Association) tournaments and then in school tournaments and I did fairly well,” he said.
“Given that I was picking up the sport quite rapidly, I decided to take it to the next level and try and set new goals, either in the club circuit or on the school circuit.”
That would require something of a leap forward in terms of each and every aspect of his badminton touch, all over the court.
“The first thing I really worked on was footwork, how to move around the court — and then the placement of my shots,” said Rocca. “Drops, smashes, clears: at first those shots were not performed in the best way possible. After maybe a year of practice, I learned how to perform those shots more effectively.”
Rocca was readying for his first chance to get his name on the Sudbury District Secondary School Athletic Association (SDSSAA) radar in the late winter/early spring of 2020, when everything changed.
“It’s unfortunate that we had to go through that (COVID-19); I lost two seasons during which I could have really improved.”
Truthfully, however, all was not lost.
“Not everyone was practicing as much as they used to, but I made the effort to just make sure I was on the court as much as possible,” said Rocca. “Badminton is a sport that you have to practice consistently.”
Whether those individualized sessions were the cause or not, the elder of two children in the family (younger sister Chiana also won silver at NOSSA, teaming with CND partner Christian Mallet in the novice mixed doubles event) has consistently veered towards singles play as his discipline of choice.
“I find honestly that I work better alone on the court, which is similar to how I perform in school,” offered Rocca. “I just prefer working alone. I don’t know why, exactly, but it’s always been like that.”
With one more year of NOBA eligibility remaining, Rocca plans to integrate badminton into his schedule as he makes the jump to post-secondary studies in the fall.
“We’ve talked about the possibility of maybe starting a club at Laurentian and you never know where that could lead,” he said.
Randy Pascal is a sportswriter in Greater Sudbury. Pursuit is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
