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.