It runs in the blood for the Magnaye clan

BADMINTON was never his first love—until he realized he was born for it.

UST Male Shuttler Peter Gabriel “Ariel” Magnaye came from a family of badminton aficionados, so it was no surprise that he would pursue the path. As the family mantra goes, being a Magnaye pretty much decided what you would do.

During his childhood, the young Ariel was more into basketball, confessing that he tried badminton only because “they wanted me to play.”

“Before, I really did not like to play the sport,” he said, “I liked basketball when I was a kid but now, I’m really addicted to badminton.”

His father, Ronald, played for the national team in the early 1990s. He made it to the international stage, playing in the 1991 and 1993 South East Asian Games and in the 1991 Arafura Games, where he won a bronze medal in the men’s doubles division.

But it was his older brother Kiko, also a UST Male Shuttler, who influenced him to try the sport. They now form the school’s formidable duo in double’s play.

The younger Magnaye acknowledged a sibling rivalry of sorts, but said it was more about academics than their skills on the court.

“I was being compared to my brother when it came to schooling, not because of badminton because even then, I could already defeat him,” Ariel recalled.

At 18, he has already accomplished a lot. He made it to the national team at 16 and he has gone to many tournaments here and abroad. He played one last July in Malaysia in the South East Asian Schools Championship and clinched a bridesmaid finish in the doubles match after teaming up with national mainstay Joper Escueta.

Nevertheless, he said that winning games in the UAAP was still his biggest achievement so far.

“They were the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” he said.

All his sacrifices paid off in the recently concluded Season 73, where Ariel was hailed as the Most Valuable Player (MVP), a rare feat for a rookie.

He did not bag the Rookie of the Year plum despite full domination in the statistics because he lost by one in the coaches’ votes. University of the East coach Rocky Magnaye, his uncle, opted to vote for another player because he was disappointed with one match played by Ariel.

“In our eliminations game versus the National University, he did not like the way I played. That day, I had a fever. I was sick,” Ariel said, “I regretted it a little, but I am happy. For me, being an MVP is a very big achievement.”

After college, this freshman from the Faculty of Arts and Letters said that he would pursue a career in the line with his degree in Communication Arts. But he would still like to continue playing badminton. Ariel fancies the idea of forming and coaching his own team.