USBDF Winter Junior International Championships (12/18-12/20)

This was the 10th anniversary of the USBDF Junior International Championships and the 5th or 6th year that our club has been participating. Needless to say, the competition has grown more and more fierce each year, with more newer and younger international players. However, our team remains strong with good players across all the age categories.

In the three very long days, there were countless thrilling matches that kept all of us sitting at the edge of our seats, clapping our hands til our forearms were sore, and screaming until we almost lost our voices! Unfortunately, I was not able to watch every single game. But of those I saw, the most memorable were as follows:

> U15BS: Yik Hin Wong had an extremely close split game against the #1 seed Ryan Chew, leading third game too, but eventually lost third game 21-19! >_<
> U17BS: Ryan Ke had a very exciting match against Brazil player Jose Salgado. This player had previously taken out the 3/4 seed. Ryan played hard and never gave up.
> U17BS: Chetan Potu put up a good fight against #2 seed Jeffrey Kuo. Chetan played a great game and showed maturity on the court despite being junior to his opponent.
> U11GS: Karen Ma played really well in semi's and final's for U11 girls singles. She was composed and focused and played a very strategic game. Way to go!

I am sure there were many many more good games and I will be sure to add them to the list above. Good job to every single one of you who participated. We see great improvement in many of you and we look forward to the next junior tournament. Congrats to all the winners. Our team won a total of 3 golds, 6 silvers, 7 bronzes, and 6 cons. Results from the tournament as follows:

Angela Lin - U17GD cons
Bryan Chow - U15BD 2nd
Bryce Kan - U11BS semi's, U11BD semi's
Cally Chung - U15GD cons
Chetan Potu - U17BD semi's
Daniel Chow - U17BD semi's
Eric Duong - U9BS 2nd, U9BD champion
Ethan Low - U11BD semi's
Jack Ma - U19BD cons
Justin Ma - U15BD 2nd
Karen Ma - U11GS champion, U11GD 2nd
Madeline Sporkert - U15GD cons
Priscilla Long - U13GS 2nd, U13GD champion
Randy Ma - U19BS 2nd, U17MX semi's
Ryan Ke - U19BD cons
Tiffany Chua - U17MX semi's, U17GD cons

For full tournament details, please click here.

2010 Team Thanksgiving Party (11/27/10)

What does GREAT food and FUN badminton spell out? Answer is, this year's Bintang Team Thanksgiving Party! It was by far the best one yet, with the most impressive food, the most intense funky doubles games (in both the competitive and the recreational flights), and the biggest turnout yet.

With over 50 dishes of food (ranging from meaty meat dishes, to tasteful noodles and rice staples, to colorful fruit and vegetable dishes, to fancy desserts that satisfied our sweet tooth times ten!), our tummies were fully satisfied! The Iron Chef contest on the potluck really made some parents bust out their secret recipes and cooking skills.

We had a record turnout for the traditional funky doubles tournament as well. There were 30 teams in the Pumpkin (recreational flight) and 25 teams in the Turkey (competitive flight) -- that's over 100 players! It was great seeing so many parents wanting to participate, playing hard on the courts, and battling it out to the very last point, in true Bintang spirit! And the coaches did not show any mercy even though they were playing against parents! Geez...we know you guys are good.

Thank you to all those who came to the party. Coach and I had a great time and we hope all of you did as well. It will be quite a challenge to beat this party next year but I am sure we will find a way! Congrats to all the winners and for all the rest, let's start practicing (and maybe training?!) for next year's Thanksgiving tournament!

Turkey Flight
Winner: Huiming Lin (Angela Lin's mom) & Coach Ilian
Runner-up: Danny Chan & Dad
Consolation: Suyi Peng (Justin Ma's mom) & Charlie Yang

Pumpkin Flight
Winner: Lily Wen & Dad
Runner-Up: Anthony Lu & Mom
Consolation: Shu-Shu Hsia & Dad

Iron Chef Contest
Winner: Su Sporkert (Madeline & Erika's mom) for the impressive chocolate fondue with fruits, cakes and donuts

Thank you again to everyone, especially the parents for their participation. A big hand as well to Mr. & Mrs. Luk for all their support and behind-the-scenes work in coordinating the party and to Mr. & Mrs. Sporkert for capturing memories of this great event. We will see you all next year. Please check out the photos here.

Puerto Rico International 2010 (11/4-11/7/10)

Bintang's pro players have been training hard the past month. Puerto Rico Open was the first international tournament for Ilian and Holvy in a long time. This tournament attracted top players from Canada, U.S., Brazil, Peru, and Italy, to name a few.

Topher played men's singles and men's doubles (partner is from Mexico). He made it to semi-finals (SF) in doubles, after beating Daniel Gouw/Arnold Setiadi in QF.

Ilian played men's singles and men's doubles with Holvy. Ilian and Holvy lost men's doubles in QF to a Canadian team. Ilian had to play qualifiers for singles. He won qualifiers and made it to the main draw, where first round he faced a player from Iran (who played in the 2008 Olympics). And Ilian won! In QF round, Ilian played Howard Shu and won. In SF round, he played Wisnnu Putro, an Indonesian playing for Italy. Ilian managed to win the first game, but then his arm was hurting a lot and he couldn't smash or clear, and lost second and third games. He played very well though and made it much further than we had expected! Good job!

Holvy played mixed doubles in addition to men's doubles with Ilian. He and Grace (Yun) Peng upset many seeds. They won their first two rounds easily. In QF, they beat a Canadian pair two games straight. They advanced to SF, where they met the #1 seed Toby Ng/Grace Gao from Canada. Holvy and partner won in two straight sets! Then Holvy and Grace played finals against yet another Canadian pair. It was a close three-set match, but Holvy/Grace stayed strong and they won!!! What a sweet victory and this was the first major tournament for this pair of retirees. ^_^

Congrats to Holvy, Topher, and Ilian for their achievements. Their hard work training is paying off!

2010 Davis Fall Open (10/30-10/31/10)

Davis tournaments are *always* fun and overall a great tournament for our team. This time was no exception and in fact we raked in more trophies than ever before! As usual, our team swept almost all the gold's in singles. But this time, we also took home many gold's in doubles! All of you stayed focused, showed great team spirit, and just played very well. Good job to all of you and especiailly to the winners:

AMS 1st - Ilian Perez
AMS semi - Charlie Yang
BMS 1st - Randy Ma
BMS semi - Chetan Potu, Gavin Chan
BMS cons - Ryan Ke
DMS 1st - Justin Ma
DMS semi - HinHin Wong
DMS cons - Brian Lin
ABWS semi - Priscilla Long
CWS 1st - Angela Lin
CWS 2nd - Cindy Tam
CWS semi - Cally Chung, Hensley Ellefritz
DWS 2nd - Madeline Sporkert
DWS semi - Karen Ma, Lily Wen

AMD 1st - Ilian Perez & Jacky Zhang
CMD 1st - Chetan Potu & Daniel Chow
DMD 1st - Alex Cawit & Danny Chan
ABWD semi - Huong & Stella
CWD 1st - Angela Lin & Tiffany Chua
CWD 2nd - Cally Chung & Partner
CWD cons - Cindy Tam & Anna Hoang
DWD 1st - Hensley Ellefritz & Karina Wong

We showed great team spirit out there. And all of you were amazing! Keep up the *great* work! Keep training hard!

This was Bintang SSF Team's first trophy (Danny and Cally both in doubles):



If you have any pics from the tournament, please let me know!

Yonex New York City Championships (9/17-9/19/10)

Ilian played the 2010 Yonex New York City Championships for the second year. Since he was the men's singles champion in 2009, Yonex USA asked him to play again this year. There were many tough opponents, including Hock Lai Lee and Ajit Umrani. And despite being the winner last year, Ilian was unseeded in the men's singles draw. Ilian flew in to New York Friday and arrived at the CP Badminton Club just in time for his first match. He won and had to play the #2 seed, Ajit, second round. Ilian won in a tight split game and then had to play the 3/4 seed in semifinals. He won in another tight split game and finally had to face Hock in finals. It was yet *another* split game, but Ilian fought it out and defended his title as men's singles champion for the second year in a row! He also won men's doubles with partner Hock.

Great performance and let's see if Ilian can defend his title yet again next year!

Full tournament results can be found here.

Halloween Party (10/23/10)

This was the sixth annual Bintang Team Halloween Party. Unfortunately, the bad weather led to a lower turnout as many of you were sick! >_< Nevertheless, we had a blast with the Dublin gangsta team, the new SSF kids, the old and new Sunnyvale/Campbell members, and all the coaches.

The winners of the costume contest are as follws:
1st - The Cowboy and Harry Potter, Ethan Low & Bryce Kan
2nd - The Ghost and the Pirate, Angela Lin & Tiffany Chua
3rd - The Mini Fighters, Eric Duong & Aaron Low

The winner of the group skit: The Noob Killers (Winky Wong, Christine Wang, Aldridge, Andrew Chan).



And the night wrapped up with the coaches skits. The skits were better and even more entertaining than last year's! Jacky and Topher started off, with a "The Ring" enactment. Topher tried luring the audience to think nothing scary, by checking FB on his laptop, then singing. And finally Jacky "crawled" out from under the table just as the Japanese version of "The Ring" was playing. Quite interesting!

Next was the "Mario Brothers Game, Ping Pong Edition", featuring Minh (as Mario), Holvy (as the dragon in the dungeon), Ryan (as the ping pong opponent), and Nate (as the choreographer and technical leader). As the Mario Brothers video game feature song started, Minh was running getting the mushroom's and flower power. He fought off the dragon and then entered into an incredibly intense ping pong game against Ryan. And, of course, Mario wins. A fun and entertaining performance!

Last was the "Star Wars Gangster Rap, with Bonus Can't Touch This", featuring Coach (as Uncle Owen and Yoda), Ilian (as Luke and the Evil Emperor), and Ricel (as Obiwan Kanobi and Darth Vader). They enact the Star Wars series in mega-abridged format. Of course, Luke defeats Darth Vader in the end, but not before losing his hand in battle. And just as the performance is "done", all three pause, and they start dancing to "Can't Touch This". Definitely entertaining, and a sure sign that Coach's back is getting much better! :)

Everyone enjoyed Mrs. Sporkert's homemade cupcakes while voting for one of the three skits. The winning skit is...The Mario Brothers! Congrats to all the winners and thank you to everyone who joined us for a fun, not too spooky, but kind of violent (group skits), Halloween party! Coach promises a haunted house next year, but only if the costumes are even bigger, better, and crazier than this year's! So start thinking now...

I will post up links to the videos soon.

Yonex Puccini Texas Championships (9/4-9/6)

Over the Labor Day Weekend, Bintang's coaches/pro players and a few students flew to Dallas for the Yonex Puccini Open. It was unsurprisingly hot and humid in Texas though the gym was quite impressive and the intensity of the games was surely over 100 degrees! There was a special visitor who participated in the tournament -- Chetan Anand, India's number one men's singles player!

Our team played very well. There were exciting matches throughout the weekend. Here is a brief recap of some of the most memorable games:

> Minh played Hock Lai Lee in semi-finals. For both the first and second games, at the 11-point interval, Minh was winning by a huge margin (i.e. first game was 11-1). But knowing that he does not have as much stamina as Hock, Minh took it easy and waitied for Hock to make the mistakes, so the scores on both games ended up being close. In the end, Minh still won the game in two sets. Quite impressive! In finals, Minh faced Chetan Anand. Because he played his singles semi-finals match and his men's doubles semi-finals and finals matches all prior to this game on the same day, he was *dead* tired! More conditioning, Minh. ^_^

> In men's doubles, Ilian and Jacky made it to semifinals but lost to Bob and Raj. On the other side of the draw, Holvy and Minh beat Vincent and Sameer. Finals was an exciting three set match. Minh and Holvy won the first game 21-12, then fought neck to neck second game but lost 20-22, and alas lost third game 16-21.

> In mixed doubles, Ilian and Yee, Jacky and Rong, and Holvy and Grace all paired up. Ilian and Yee took out the number two seed, Bob Malaythong and Paula O'Banana, in quaterfinals in a close three-set match. Then Ilian and Yee faced Jacky and Rong in semi-finals and prevailed in another exciting three-set match. On the other side of the draw, Holvy and Grace took out Hock Lai Lee and Priscilla Lun in two games in quarterfinals. Then they had a close match against Raju Rai and Jamie Subhandi but pulled out ahead. In finals, Holvy and Grace prevailed over Ilian and Yee.

Final results:
Open Men's Singles 2nd - Minh Nguyen
Open Men's Doubles 2nd - Minh Nguyen & Holvy de Pauw
Open Men's Doubles Semi's - Ilian Perez & Jacky Zhang
Open Mixed Doubles 1st - Holvy de Pauw & Grace Yun
Open Mixed Doubles 2nd - Ilian Perez & Yee Theng Lim
Open Mixed Doubles Semi's - Jacky Zhang & Rong Bo
B Men's Singles 1st - Ron Muradia
B Men's Singles 2nd - Gavin Chan
B Men's Doubles 1st - Ron Muradia & Gavin Chan
U19 Boy's Singles 2nd - Gavin Chan
U19 Boy's Doubles 1st - Gavin Chan & Abhay Quareshi

Great job team! You guys show us how well-rounded you are as players. :)

Full tournament results can be found here.

2010 Pan Am Junior Badminton Championships (8/5-8/7)

The 2010 Pan Am Junior Badminton Championships was held in Santo Domingo this year. Bintang Team sent a total of 10 players to represent the US team, including Bryce Kan, Brian Duong, Priscilla Long, Bryan Chow, Tiffany Chua, Gavin Chan, Chetan Potu, and Daniel Chow. (Karen Ma and Randy Ma also qualified for the team.)

After four long days of intense competition in the hot and humid weather, Bintang Team members pulled through to win a total of 8 medals (under the US flag). The wins are as follows:

Under 11 Boys Singles 2nd - Bryce Kan
Under 11 Boys Doubles 2nd - Bryce Kan & Robert Huang*
Under 13 Girls Singles 2nd - Priscilla Long
Under 13 Mixed Doubles 2nd - Brian Duong & Priscilla Long
Under 13 Boys Doubles 1st - Brian Duong & Vinson Chiu*
Under 13 Girls Doubles 1st - Priscilla Long & Micaela Lum*
Under 17 Boys Singles 3/4 - Chetan Potu

Excellent work! We are proud of you!

2010 U.S. Junior Nationals (7/1-7/6)

It was yet another intense week at Junior Nationals this year. Our team had a great showing and proves to be getting stronger and stronger each year. We had top players in every age category and gave a good fight at every level. We are very proud of how far the kids have come along under the strong dedication of the coaches. We thank everyone for their support, hard work, and commitment throughout the entire year. And let us keep it up for the coming year. Here are the results from our team:

U9BS 1st - Eric Duong
U9BD 1st - Eric Duong
U11BS 3rd - Bryce Kan
U11GS 2nd - Karen Ma
U11MX 2nd - Bryan Kan/Karen Ma
U11BD 2nd - Bryce Kan/Ethan Low
U11GD 1st - Karen Ma/Joanna Liu*
U13BS 1st - Brian Duong
U13GS 2nd - Priscilla Long
U13BD 1st - Brian Duong/Vinson Chiu*
U13GD 1st - Priscilla Long/Micaela Lum*
U13MX 1st - Brian Duong/Priscilla Long
U15BD 5th - Bryan Chow/Justin Ma
U15BD 6th - James Wang/Christopher Kan*
U17BS 2nd - Randy Ma
U17BS 6th - Daniel Chow
U17MX 6th - Randy Ma/Tiffany Chua
U17BD 3rd - Martin Hung/Chetan Potu
U17GD 5th - Alisia Lu/Lily Wen
U19BS 3rd - Charlie Yang
U19BD 6th - Charlie Yang/Randy Ma
U22BS 3rd - Francis Yao
U22BS 4th - Jack Ma

Bintang Team Wins Big at MIT Boston Open (5/7-5/9)

Bintang Badminton's Pro Team rocked at the 2010 MIT Boston Open! It was three long days of great games with Bintang's players taking home the gold for men's singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles. A triple victory!

In mixed doubles, Holvy and partner Grace won finals in two sets. The only hard match would have been against Minh and partner Johannah in semifinals, but they decided to not play so that Minh could rest his legs (he pulled his hamstring on Saturday!) and focus on singles and doubles.

In men's singles, Jacky faced an intense semi-finals match but pulled through, to meet Minh in finals. Finals itself was a long and grueling game -- a rubber match with the third game 28-26! Jacky's reaction after Minh won: "Those two points were worth $350 each!"

In men's doubles, Holvy and Minh had an easy ride and breezed through all of their games.

It was a fun but tiring tournament for the pro team. They made us proud! Good job -- keep it up! We expect a clean sweep next year! :]

Full tournament results can be found here.

Spring Davis Open 2010 (4/24-4/25)

Great job to Team Bintang for yet another successful showing at the 2010 Spring Davis Open! With participants from Campbell, Dublin, and Sunnyvale teams as well as our pro players, our team nearly swept all the singles titles and took home a handful of the doubles titles as well. This was a huge tournament with most of the C and D draws over 64 big and high school/college students from all over present.

Coach, Topher, Minh, Holvy, Jacky, and Nate were all hard at work going around actively watching the team play. We thank them for their great efforts! ^_^ Here is a recap of the results:

---------------------

A FLIGHT

AMS 1st - Jacky Zhang

AMS 2nd - Topher Flores

ABWS 1st - Joyce Lee

AMD 1st - Holvy de Pauw/Minh Nguyen

AMD 2nd - Jacky Zhang/Topher Flores

AWD 2nd - Stella Chun/Hanh Nguyen*

--------------------------

B FLIGHT

BMS 1st - Francis Yao

BMS 2nd - Jack Ma

BMS semi's - Martin Hung

BWD 1st - Joyce Lee/Tiffany Chua

--------------------------

C FLIGHT

CMS 1st - Derek Chao

CMS semi's - Bryan Chow

CWS semi's - Hensley Ellefritz

CMD 1st - Francis Yao/Daniel Chow

CMD 2nd - Derek Chao/Ryan Ke

---------------------------

D FLIGHT

DMS 2nd - Justin Ma

DMS semi's - James Wang

DMS semi's - Johnny Le

DWS cons - Madeline Sporkert

DMD 2nd - Matt Yim/Dung Bui

DMX 2nd - Jason Guanlao/Hensley Ellefritz

-----------------------------

*denotes player not from club

Again, a big hand to all those who won! Everyone has improved tremendously, even the little juniors. We hope everyone had a great time and let's keep practicing hard!

Welcome Holvy and Jacky!

We welcome Holvy de Pauw and Jacky (Fan) Zhang to our pro player team! Holvy will be primarily at Bintang Campbell and Jacky will be mainly at Bintang Sunnyvale. They are both great players and we look forward to sweeping men's categories at local and national tournaments!

Holvy de Pauw - Formerly on the Indonesia National Team and later was recruited to the Germany and Switzerland National teams. Holvy was one of the top-rising junior players on the Indonesia team with fans from all over! His major wins include 2001 Boys Singles Champion at the Indonesia National Championships, 2005 Croatian International Men's Singles Champion, and 2008 Wilson MIT Boston Open Men's Singles Winner.

Jacky (Fan) Zhang - Formerly on the China National Youth Team, Jacky is notably one of the top local men's singles players. His achievements include 2008 and 2009 Bay Area Open Men's Singles Champion, 2009 Bay Area Open Men's Doubles Champion, and 2009 Dave Freeman Open Men's Doubles Champion.

2010 Mid-Atlantic Classic (3/26-3/28)

A USAB sanctioned one-star tournament, the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Classic was held in Philadelphia the last weekend of March. Being that it was so far away, only Minh and Phu participated. It was an exciting tournament for them, as they met and played against many new faces. There are a lot of strong players in the East Coast too that they normally do not get the chance to play with! Unfortunately, the tournament was constantly behind schedule and Phu/Minh ended up being at the gym from 10am to 12am!

Minh had fairly smooth games that he was able to win in two sets all the way up to finals. The finals match was against ex-Cuban national player Ilian Perez. Minh secured his victory in three sets, to become the men's singles champion!

On the men's doubles side, Minh and Phu again met many new players and very much enjoyed their games. Semi-finals was a close, tough match against current top US doubles players Vincent/Sameer. Minh and Phu played well and stayed focus, pulling a 21-18 win in the third set. Finals proved to be tougher though and they just didn't have the spark they had the previous day, losing to Ajit/Sunil.

Overall, it was a great experience but surely nothing beats California weather and California badminton facilities! ^_^

2010 Dave Freeman Open (2/26-2/28)

A USAB sanctioned two-star tournament, the 2010 Dave Freeman Open was held at San Diego's Balboa Park the last weekend of February. The usual West Coast top U.S. contenders were mostly there, making it a familiar scene though in a different facility. Bintang's pro players participated in this tournament and had a good showing, although half of them were sick throughout the trip. :[

Minh had an exciting semi-finals match against Hock Lai Lee, the winner of most tournaments of late in men's singles. He played a very consistent game and was lucky also that his opponent was a bit out of form compared to normal. So Minh won the game in two close sets. He then faced Sattawat in finals and clinched victory in two sets, becoming the new 2010 Dave Freeman Men's Singles Champion!

Results are as follows:

Open Men's Singles Champion - Minh Nguyen
Open Men's Singles Semi-finalist - Christopher Flores
Open Men's Doubles Semi-finalist - Minh Nguyen/Phu Khuu
Open Men's Doubles Consolation - Christopher Flores/Ba Su*
Open Women's Doubles Semi-finalist - Paula O'banana/Chin Go
Open Mixed Doubles Semi-finalist - Paula O'banana/Chandra Kowi*
BMS 2nd - Dominick Lim
CMS 2nd - Nate Le
CMD Semi-finalist - Nate Le/Ryan Ngo

For full details, please check here.

Kason Racket Supply Tournament (2/27-2/28)

The Kason Tournament hosted by Racket Supply, held at SJSU, was another successful tournament for Bintang Team, even though all of the coaches except for Roxanne were away for another tournament. Results from the team as follows:

BMS 2nd - Randy Ma
BMS semi's - Chetan Potu
CMS 1st - Jack Ma
CMS 2nd - Gavin Chan
CWS 1st - Priscilla Long
CMD 2nd - Chetan Potu & Martin Hung
CWD Cons - Priscilla Long & Micaela Lum*
CMX 1st - Phoebe Lin & Martin Hung
DMD 2nd - Brian Li & Jack Ma
DWD 1st - Priscilla Long & Micaela Lum*
U15 BS 1st - Bryan Chow
U15 BS Semi - Justin Ma
U15 BD Cons - Jordy Supandi & Eric Cheung
U15 MX Cons - Priscilla Long & Brian Duong
U13 BS 1st - Brian Duong
U13 GS Cons - Karen Ma
U11 BS 2nd - Bryce Kan
U11 BS Cons - Ethan Low
U11 GS 1st - Karen Ma
U11 BD Semi - Bryce Kan & Ethan Low
U11 GD 2nd - Karen Ma & Joanna Liu*
U11 MX Cons - Karen Ma & Bryce Kan

Thank you to Roxanne for all the time and effort spent coaching all the kids! Good job everyone -- keep training hard and raking in those trophies!

JITT U11,U13,U15,U17 (2/13-2/15/10)

Love was surely in the air and in our hearts during Valentine's Day this year -- that is, love for badminton and love for winning!!! Team Bintang spent this holiday competing against the best juniors from across the country for the few select spots on the US Junior PanAm team. Held at OCBC, the Junior International Team Trials was a three-day affair full of intense games and many bittersweet victories.

There was no question that our team was one of the strongest and most successful at JITT this year. With top players in every age category, we had many wins and secured many spots for the Junior PanAm competition held this summer. Though Coach and I were not there to watch in person, we literally checked TournamentSoftware every hour (or perhaps every 30 minutes?) for updates. And we were so excited with how well all of you performed. We sincerely thank Paula and Topher too for their dedication and commitment in coaching everyone at JITT and we extend our gratitude to all the coaches for their hard work throughout the year to get the kids this far.

Good job to everyone -- we are very proud of you!

Here is a list of our team's results:
Under 11 Age Category
U11BS 1st - Bryce Kan
U11GS 1st - Karen Ma
U11BD 1st - Bryce Kan & Bobby Huang*
U11MX 1st - Bryce Kan & Karen Ma
U11MX 4th - Matthias Lai & Michelle Zhang*

Under 13 Age Category
U13BS 2nd - Brian Duong
U13GS 2nd - Priscilla Long
U13BD 1st - Brian Duong & Vinson Chiu*
U13GD 1st - Priscilla Long & Micaela Lum*
U13GD 2nd - Karen Ma & partner*
U13MX 2nd - Brian Duong & Priscilla Long

Under 15 Age Category
U15BS 3rd - Bryan Chow
U15GS 1st - Christine Yang
U15BD 4th - Justin Ma & Christopher Li*
U15MX 4th - Christine Yang & Ryan Chew*
U15MX 5th - Hilary Lai & Bryan Chow

Under 17 Age Category
U17BS 1st - Randy Ma
U17BS 2nd - Martin Hung
U17BS 3rd - Chetan Potu
U17BS 5th - Daniel Chow
U17GS 1st - Tiffany Chua
U17BD 3rd - Martin Hung & Chetan Potu
U17GD 1st - Tiffany Chua & Christine Yang
U17MX 4th - Gavin Chan & Tiffany Chua

* denotes player from another club

For full results, please check here.

Berkeley's Polar Bear Tournament (1/30-1/31/10)

Cal Badminton's Polar Bear Tournament was quite an experience! Our team was there early morning around 8am but many of our games were 3-4 hours delayed!!! So those who reached semi's and final's in their events were at the gym until 10pm. It was super hot and stuffy, and just...an unforgettable tournament for all the wrong reasons. :[

Except however, our team performed phenomenally well and nearly swept singles, in true Bintang tradition. And this time around, we had some incredible wins in mixed and doubles as well. A big congrats goes out to all those who won and "great job" to everyone else. Many of you got very far in the draws and we noticed much improvement in many of you. Keep it up!

Here is a list of the winners:
AMS 2nd - Topher
BMS 1st - Dominick Lim
BMS semi's - Martin Hung
BMS cons - Chetan Potu
CMS 1st - Ryan Ke
CMS 2nd - Gavin Chan
CMS semi's - Lawrence Luk
DMS 1st - Brian Li
DMS 2nd - Bryan Chow
DMS semi's - Stephen Lee
DMS semi's - Dung Bui
ABWS 2nd - Stella Chun
ABWS semi's - Joyce Lee
CWS 2nd - Priscilla Long
CWS cons - Angela Lin
DWS 1st - Hensley Ellefritz
DWS semi's - Hilary Lai

CMX 2nd - Tiffany Chua & Gavin Chan
CMX semi's - Christine Yang & Ryan Chew*
DMX 2nd - Hilary Lai & Bryan Chow

AMD semi's - Minh & Ben Lee*
AWD 1st - Paula & Chin
BWD semi's - Christine Yang & Joyce Lee
DMD cons - Bryan Chow & HinHin Wong
DWD 1st - Hilary Lai & Candy Zhang*

For complete results, please check here.
For photos from the tournament, please check Ryan Ngo's facebook album.

Team Xmas New Year Party! (1/2/10)

The team celebrated a belated Christmas and welcomed the new year with much spirit. Over sixty team members gathered at Bintang Sunnyvale for this occassion. After smaller teams were formed, each team designed a team flag and came up with a team name and motto. There were some very...interesting...ones, such as "Team Midgets", "Team Jacob", and "Crippled Penguins". The teams then challenged each other in a "How Well Do you Know Your Teammates and Coaches" trivia followed by a charades of New Year's Resolutions.

The party wrapped up with the traditional create-your-own-lyrics to a Christmas song. There was a twist to this year's though -- each team had to randomly draw the name of one of the coaches and the lyrics had to be about that person! (Were there threats from some of the coaches that their kids would do bunny hops all practice long if the lyrics were not favorable?! :) The songs were very creative and the performance of the songs was undoubtedly entertaining. We weren't aware that so many of you have so much talent outside of badminton!

The last and most awaited event of the night was the Secret Santa gift exchange. Coach Topher dressed up as Santa to hand out the presents. Some presents were big, some were small, some were heavy, some were light -- but regardless of the size and shape of the present, we all had fun and we all enjoyed being together in true Bintang fashion! We wish everyone the best 2010!

For the full album of pictures from the party, click here.

YOG Trials & U19JITT (12/28 - 1/1)

The YOG Trials and U19JITT was held at GGBC Menlo over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Needless to say, the best U19 juniors from around the country all gathered to compete for the select spots on the US Junior Team.

At the YOG trials, Charlie Yang managed to place third, which qualified him to participate in the PanAm YOG trial to be held in Peru. This was a huge win, as Charlie was competing against others who were mostly a year older than him.

After two days of intense games for the YOG trials, a few Bintang team members marched back to compete in the U19JITT. This competition was to determine who would qualify to represent the US Team at the PanAm Junior Championships. Our Bintang players played hard and fought to the very last point. This time around, Charlie Yang rose to the occassion. And despite his fatigue from all the long games at YOG trials, he pushed himself in every game, never to split once with any of his competitors. Demonstrating true willpower and unparalleled spirit, Charlie won and became 2010's new U19JITT boys singles champion!

We are very proud of his achievements and we look forward to his performance at the PanAm YOG, World Juniors, and PanAm Junior Championships later this year. Good job to Charlie and to all those who played.

For full results of U19JITT, check here.

Winter USBDF (12/19 - 12/21)

Held at OCBC as always, Winter Junior International Championships was an exciting and great learning experience for our team this year. There were many intense, three-set matches for our players against the international players, especially in the U17 and U19 categories. It just comes to show that the level of play of our team is slowly catching up to the level overseas.

I did not have the fortune to be present at the tournament to watch all the games, but from what I heard and from what I saw on tournament software, it was surely a memorable tournament. Good job to everyone who participated! Here is a list of the wins:

U9BS Semi's: Matthias Lai
U9BD Semi's: Eric Duong & Matthias Lai
U11GS Semi's: Karen Ma
U11MX Semi's: Karen Ma & Bryce Kan
U11GD 2nd: Karen Ma & Joanna Liu*
U11BD Semi's: Bryce Kan & Ethan Low
U13BS Semi's: Justin Ma
U13MX 1st: Justin Ma & Christine Yang
U13BD 2nd: Brian Duong & Vinson Chiu*
U13GD 1st: Priscilla Long & Micaela Lum*
U13GD Semi's: Hilary Lai & Candy Zhang*
U15BS Semi's: Chetan Potu
U15GS 2nd: Christine Yang
U15MX Semi's: Christine Yang & Ryan Chew*
U15BD 2nd: Martin Hung & Chetan Potu
U15BD Semi's: Ryan Ke & Gavin Chan
U15GD 1st: Christine Yang & Cherie Chow*
U17GS Semi's: Catherine Wu, Phoebe Lin
U17MX Cons: Catherine Wu & Jack Ma
U17BD Cons: Randy Ma & Charlie Yang
U17GD 1st: Phoebe Lin & Danae Long*
U17GD 2nd: Catherine Wu & Adrianne Giuffre*
U22MX Cons: Jason Guanlao & Joyce Lee

* denotes player from another club

For full results, please visit here.