Off to the games

It’s a recent Monday night practice at the Gut ‘N Feathers, the badminton club on Pleasant Street. And the face of Marblehead High School student Nicole Frevold, 16, is beet red.

She and her fellow practice-mates just braked, grabbed sips of waters after their coach, Nikki Vered, had them conduct 30 minutes of military-style conditioning – burpees, crunches and suicides.

For the latter, Fervold sprinted for what seemed like eternity across the court as Vered yelled out: “push it!” “don’t stop, don’t stop” and “harder.”

The exercises build stamina, speed and agility, essential ingredients of a badminton player.

Fervold said, “There is always running during practices. Sometime we’re running more than we're hitting."

As Vered, a former member of the United States National Badminton team, offered up while standing on the court’s sidelines:“You got to be able to get to the birdie. It’s crucial.”

The athletes hit the court and then shuttlecocks - also know as “birdies” - across the courts’ two nets.

Frevold focuses on the birdie with a dog-to-bone intensity. She resembles a tennis player with the footwork deployed in a fencing match. She lunges at the birdie and chases it down. When she hits it with all her might, a clean pop leaves her racket and reverberates across the high-ceiling court.

Power is her specialty.

“I feel like I have a lot more power than most girls my age, so that comes in handy,” she says.

Badminton enamors Frevold. When her family travels, she charts out the nearest courts to hit. She sleeps, eats and drinks the game.

The nationally ranked player will represent the United States in the Jewish 2015 European Maccabi Games as part of a team of badminton players. The games will bring 2,000 athletes, coaches and counselors across 20 different sports to Berlin, Germany. Athletes will compete at the Olympic Park, the location Nazis prohibited Jews from competing in the Olympic Games of 1936.

Frevold’s skill and hardwork landed her the spot.

She also claims a sponsorship with Yonex, a top badminton brand. They provide her with rackets, shoes and bags.

Having just come back from garnering a triple crown, first place status in badminton-speak, in a Northern Virginia tournament, she and her mom, Anne Tassel, sat in an Atomic Café and talked to what continues fueling the healthy obsession.

“I’ve been going with her to tournaments for years,” said Tassel. “She’s always been very athletic – she played softball, badminton and basketball.”

But one of the three stuck. Her first introduction to the game came at seven, when she stumbled into a Marblehead Community Center badminton game. At around ten, her commitment grew strong, prompted by her Hungarian coach.

“The coach said she’s go a lot of potential and should play a lot more,” said Tassel.

Today, she practices four nights a week between two and three hours. And all of the success comes with social sacrifices.

“It’s time consuming, but I love it. You got to be disciplined and determined,” Frevold said. “During the week, you know, some people are able to hang out, I’m not able to do that ever.”

Right now, she is fixated on Maccabi games, to be held from July 27 to Aug. 8.

In 2013, she competed in the sporting event, hosted in Israel.

“It was the best experience of my life that I’ve ever had,” said Frevold.