‘I’ve Got You, Dad!’

A dream that Malvin Alcala had nurtured for himself over 40 years ago came to fruition when his son Mark Shelley took the court for his debut BWF World Championships.

The senior Alcala was a promising player for the Philippines before a back injury in the early 1990s cut short his career and his dream of playing the World Championships and the Olympics. Everything he has done since then – naming his children, for instance, or moving to the USA later – was based around the ambition of seeing them achieve in badminton what he could not.

“This is my dream because it’s my dad’s dream,” said Alcala. “He got injured when he was a player, and he wasn’t able to achieve this dream. So he motivated me.

Malvin Alcala was a late entrant to badminton. Raised in a family of modest means (his soldier father had died young), Alcala took up basketball and then stumbled upon badminton when he was 15. Having fallen in love with it and picking up its nuances through observation, he would start winning tournaments a year after he started.

However, just a couple of years into his senior career, Alcala suffered a severe back injury which needed surgery. That effectively was to kill his ambitions as a player.

Alcala then resolved that if he couldn’t achieve his dream, his (yet-to-be born) children would realise it.

Before his first – a girl – was born, Alcala told his wife Shirley that the child would carry his name. They named her Malvinne – simply because, when her name would be called out at tournaments, it sounded like he was being called on court.

Their second child, naturally, had to take the mother’s name – with Shelley being a stand-in for Shirley.

“I told my wife, once we have kids, girl or boy, the first one will have my name and the second one will have yours,” Malvin Alcala recounted. “Because when they announced my daughter’s name, it’s like they were announcing mine. I felt I was still playing because I would be accompanying her and they were calling my name. My wife’s name is part of Marky’s name because she has also been part of this dream.”

Both Malvinne and Mark Shelley, raised by the badminton-obsessed father, would go on to become internationals, with Malvinne turning out for the Phillipines for some five years, without being able to play the World Championships.

Ten years ago, continuing pursuit of the badminton dream, the family emigrated to the United States. Malvin is now technical director at an academy.

It’s been nearly a decade since Mark Shelley first played for the US. On Tuesday, the Shelley family finally had its World Championships debut, with Mark playing Pan Am great Kevin Cordon.

The younger Alcala navigated the challenge well, coming away victorious in 40 minutes, 21-17 21-13.

“Cordon is a a legend, so it’s really hard playing against him, his smashes were so hard,” he said with a wide grin.

“It means a lot to be at the World Championships. I’ve been ready for this, I prepared for this. I’ve prepared a lot. I’m happy that I finally played the World Championships. I’m happy I played at 100 per cent today.

“This means a lot as my dad never played the World Championships.”