Badminton is a way of life for Van Grondelles

Chris Van Grondelle was in line to face a unique situation at last year's badminton state tournament.

The Buffalo Grove coach's doubles team of Ashton and Heather Nisbet was playing in one semifinal at Eastern Illinois University. The other semifinal included a team from Palatine of Nikki Patel and a sophomore - named Katie Van Grondelle.

"The parents at Buffalo Grove recognized it before I did," Chris Van Grondelle said of the possibility of the Nisbets playing his daughter for a title or third place. "They said, 'What are you going to do if it really comes down to it?'

"It was fun to think about, that's for sure."

It didn't happen on that May Saturday as the Nisbets wound up in the title match and finishing second. Katie Van Grondelle and Patel played for third and took fourth.

But the Van Grondelles' badminton family ties took another twist Tuesday when BG faced Palatine in a dual meet. The Nisbets topped Katie and her freshman sister Maggie 21-18, 22-20 in a No. 1 doubles match.

"It really is amazing how family oriented it is and has been," said Chris Van Grondelle.

"So many people have taken our family in."

And badminton truly is a family matter to the Van Grondelles.

Start with mom Karen (Kurka), a 1979 Prospect graduate who played in the state tourney as a sophomore and senior. Her sister Liz finished sixth in the state in 1982 for the Knights.

Karen also played at Illinois State for Kevin Hussey, a former national champion and international player who now runs the state tourney at Eastern Illinois.

"I didn't get back into it until I met Chris," Karen said.

Chris is now in his ninth year as BG's head coach. He was also the head coach at Wheeling for five years after a year as BG's junior varsity coach.

"When I got the job at BG, they said the badminton position was open and I had taught it in PE, but I had never coached before," Chris said. "All of Karen's friends were coaches or top-ranked players in the area, so even if I didn't know what the heck I was doing I could get help from them.

"It really became a passion of mine and the whole family."

Now Katie and Maggie are playing together. Sixth-grader Annie, who is also an excellent ballet, tap and jazz dancer, frequently has a racket in her hand.

But Chris said his daughters were also good softball pitchers. So the question was which spring sport would Katie and Maggie choose?

"Because I grew up playing badminton, I was still going to want to do it," said Maggie, who also played volleyball and basketball for Palatine.

They were also usually at the Sunday night community education program for badminton at BG that was started by Chris.

"We were always watching dad's meets," said Katie, who played volleyball for the Pirates, "and I always liked hitting around after matches."

With Patel having graduated, Katie didn't have to look to far for a possible new doubles partner.

"I like playing with Maggie," Katie said. "We play together on Sunday nights and we get to play a lot of good competition."

Playing with Katie helped ease Maggie's transition to playing varsity competition as a freshman.

"I was pretty relieved," she said. "I was kind of nervous we wouldn't be together because I've never played with other people besides her."

They got off to a nice start in hopes of making it to state together as they finished second in the Palatine Invitational.

"The last few meets, it's been really nice to watch," Karen said. "To see both daughters on the same court playing together is just an amazing thrill.

"They don't play like sisters, they play like a doubles team. That's the neat thing about it."

And it's pretty tough to avoid talking badminton around the house.

"We videotaped all three (of Katie and Maggie's) matches so what did we do?" Chris said with a smile after they came home from last week's Palatine quad. "These guys said, 'Let's watch the video of all three matches.'"

Said with Karen with a smile: "What else do the Van Grondelles do?"