Kings Eagles badminton player Abigail Ledda
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
As a badminton player Valerie Loker represented Canada at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
Now as a badminton coach at Edmonton's Royal Glenora, she is passing on her skills to younger students.
She is also passing on her passion for the sport.
A passion that gave rebirth to Abigail Ledda.
"In Grade 11, I took a year off badminton," recalls Ledda, a first-year student/athlete with The Kings University Eagles badminton team in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC). "I had been playing continuously since I was five years old and I wanted to focus more on school.
"I felt that badminton became more stressful, rather than fun. I wanted to take a year off and try team sports and shift my priorities. I didn't see the point of playing badminton anymore.
"In Grade 12, I came back to play because of Valerie (Loker). As soon as I started training with her, I found that badminton was my sport again. She was a big inspiration. She motivated me and a lot changed with my perspective on badminton.
"Up until I met my new coach, I had no motivation to do anything. She gave me a new perspective on everything and how to overcome the mental stuff before, during and even after the game."
Ledda continues: "Badminton is not just physical ability. A lot of it is mental strength and that starts when you are a younger kid. It is supposed to be fun but soon you get into the stress and wanting to win and get results. It got pretty stressful with the focus on school as well."
An all-around athlete with championships in basketball, soccer, team handball and volleyball while maintaining high academia, Ledda is currently enrolled in biology.
"At first Kings wasn't on my radar but I talked to John Li and he told me how Kings was just starting off and it wanted to get a competitive badminton team going.
"The ACAC is pretty competitive and a lot of the other players I already knew with the majority coming from the same training places. Everyone takes it seriously as well, while at the same time having fun."
Ledda comes from an athletic family, her father Ben still playing competitive golf and tennis, mother Rhoda tennis with her brother Roy dabbling in soccer and sister Cha-Cha. 'more of the artistic one in the family" enjoying her time on the volleyball court.
Ledda recalls her childhood and the importance of badminton,"I was a fairly skinny kid growing up. In Grade 9, I was only 90 pounds and I did not have a lot of strength. I had a lot of mental setbacks also and a badminton player requires concentration and focus.
"When I was a kid I also had eczema, a skin condition. It was a huge distraction. I wanted to quit because of my skin problem. I did not have the confidence to be out there. I used to joke that it flared up when I had to play badminton and that I was allergic to badminton."
With racket in hand, Ledda says she transforms into a different person when she steps onto the hardwood.
"I am a completely different person. I take it serious and I lot of people are scared when they play me. My perspective is when out there you are out there to plat and not to make friends. That is the sort of thing you can do afterwards."
Ledda said she is leaning towards a career in dermatology.
At the ACAC Badminton Tournament held last month in Edmonton and hosted by Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder she placed third in women's singles with second going to NAIT Ooks' Eyota Kwan and first to the host teams Takeisha Wang. She also teammed with John Li to placed third in mixed doubles, second to NAIT's Nick Roque and Ryo Kuramochi and first to the host team duo of Nicolas Pittman and Takeisha Wang.