by Ryan Smith | AHL On The Beat
Skilled hockey gamers have a longstanding historical past of possessing an athletic pedigree inside their household bushes.
Not surprisingly, such connections ordinarily manifest inside the recreation of hockey. However in different cases, a participant’s roots may have ties to baseball (e.g., Jeff Petry), basketball (Seth and Caleb Jones), and even soccer (J.T. Brown).
For present Springfield Thunderbirds ahead Sam Bitten and his brother, former Thunderbird and fellow fan-favorite Will Bitten, their lineage comes from a way more surprising athletic supply – badminton.
Certainly, earlier than the brothers ever laced up skates, the Bitten household’s early reminiscences have been formed by the lightning-quick racket sport, whose origins date again to the nineteenth century. Lengthy earlier than Sam and Will started their journey on the ice, their mother and father Michael and Doris achieved one thing few athletes ever expertise: the possibility to compete on the world’s grandest stage.
The 1992 Summer time Olympics in Barcelona marked badminton’s official debut as an Olympic sport. Among the many 30 pairs competing within the inaugural males’s doubles match have been two Canadian duos, one among which featured Michael Bitten, who had earned the distinction of being among the many first athletes to characterize Canada in Olympic badminton.
However Michael wasn’t alone in chasing Olympic goals. His journey was intertwined with Doris Piché, whom he had first met eight years earlier at a match of their native Canada. Doris, a Quebec native who grew up talking solely French, and Michael, the son of a navy household who traveled extensively, initially bridged their language barrier by way of handwritten letters.
In Barcelona, Doris not solely grew to become one of many first two girls to ever don the Canadian colours in girls’s singles on the Olympics, however she superior all the way in which to the spherical of 16. She would additionally compete within the girls’s doubles competitors in Barcelona earlier than ending her Olympic profession in Atlanta in 1996 within the singles and combined doubles tournaments.
Though Will and Sam weren’t born till 1998 and 2000, respectively, their mother and father’ achievements left an enduring legacy.
“We grew up taking part in badminton even earlier than hockey,” Sam recollects of his childhood in Ottawa. “We had a racket in our arms from the time we have been little children. There are photos of me and Will hitting birdies at one another.”
Badminton wasn’t only a pastime – it was ingrained within the Bitten brothers’ upbringing. Their first jobs? Serving to out at Michael’s summer season badminton camps as counselors.
“The camps had round 60 children every week, and new teams every week,” Sam remembers. “Once we have been actually younger, we attended the camps and cherished it; it stored us lively and match taking part in sports activities. It’s in all probability why we’re at all times buzzing round (to at the present time).”
In an alternate timeline, Sam Bitten the hockey participant might by no means have existed, he admits.
“We grew up taking part in a number of sports activities, and so they at all times needed us to see what we excelled in and what we favored, and I actually cherished badminton,” he stated. “If it was extra widespread in North America, you’d in all probability by no means see me play hockey. I like the person side and the mindset of coaching by yourself.”
Whereas he might have turned skilled in a special sport than his mother and father, Sam nonetheless is fast to level out the parallels between singles badminton and the more durable aspect of hockey.
“I like that aggressive, one-on-one, ‘who desires it extra?’ aspect,” Bitten stated of his position as a bodily presence on the ice. “Badminton has quite a lot of that as nicely.”
Bitten additionally takes observe of different intangibles which can be shared abilities between the vastly completely different sports activities.
“There are many stops and begins, plus hand-eye coordination. Followers have seen [Will] rating targets out of mid-air earlier than, however I haven’t gotten the luxurious of doing that but, however possibly in the future. [Badminton] is an intense and enjoyable sport, and typically it will get a nasty rep or individuals assume it’s simple, however it’s simply so quick and other people don’t perceive the velocity till you see two elite gamers play.”
Raised by two Olympic athletes, the Bitten brothers grew up surrounded by the relentless drive of elite opponents. Each 4 years, when the Olympic torch is lit, it affords a second of reflection for Sam and his household.
“When the Olympics roll round, I take into consideration all of the hours my mother and father and the athletes educated. You place a lot into it to coach and carry out at your finest on a nightly foundation.”
Ever the competitor along with his brother, Sam adamantly factors out that whereas Will might have reached the NHL first of their hockey careers, there may be one athletic endeavor the place the youthful Sam holds a definitive edge.
“I nonetheless play badminton lots, and I’ve bought the one-up on Will in that sport, for positive,” he chuckles. “And he is aware of it, too.”
