Athlete of the Month:
Daniella Espinoza

There is nothing more upsetting to athletes than when someone says “you don’t play a real sport.” This certainly resonates with Daniella Espinoza, a 2011 WSC Scholar and 3-time captain of Golder College Prep’s badminton team. Prior to her freshman year, Daniella had only played badminton recreationally, but when her advisor and chemistry teacher recruited her to play for Golder’s badminton team, she decided to give it a try. Daniella quickly fell in love with the sport and spent the next three years training for 2 hours every day after school with her new teammates.

Golder is currently the only school in Chicago that has a varsity badminton team, but without a gym and only one badminton court, the 17 girls on the team must be creative with their practice routines. To gain experience, they travel up to 2 hours to compete with their suburban counterparts, many of whom have stronger teams, better equipment and better facilities. Yet, Daniella doesn’t let that deter her; this summer, she will be attending a week-long badminton camp with her doubles partner at Eastern Illinois University to learn new techniques, work with trainers and improve communication with her partner. Because of all the hard work she has put into her badminton training, Daniella was fortunate enough to compete at sectionals and this year would like to make it to the state level.  While she is confident of the hard work she has put into her training, many of her suburban counterparts at Sectionals were surprised at how well Daniella and her teammates performed because of the limited badminton opportunities in the city.

In an effort to gain visibility for the sport and create more opportunities for Chicagoans, Daniella has been a leader in the high school badminton community for the past few years, recruiting students, teaching the JV team drills and organizing friendly competitions between Golder and other Chicago high school badminton clubs. She has also introduced the sport to younger Chicagoans, such as when she and 7 other WSC Scholars spoke with 40 summer camp students to teach them about sports such as basketball, badminton, tennis, swimming, gymnastics and synchronized swimming as part of the WSC Scholar Sports Day. As an athlete in a nontraditional sport, she feels it is especially important to show kids that there are other sports that they can play besides baseball or soccer and she found it heart-warming that the younger students were excited to learn something new.

During the next year, Daniella will be extremely busy as she aims to make the State Championships in badminton, attend the WSC Scholarship Program events and finish her senior year strong, but she, like her fellow WSC Scholars, is focused on her commitment to both athletics and academics.  Daniella hopes to attend the University of Miami and to become a marine biologist.