2011 Fall Davis Open (10/22-10/23)

We didn't think it would be possible to beat our record from the last Davis tournament, but boy did our team set a new record! Out of a total of 19 events, we won 15 of them. We nearly swept not only in singles but in mixed and doubles as well! All of the hard work you have put into training has paid off. Congratulations to *all* of you for playing well and showing great fighting spirit.

The two most intense games that I remember are Marvin Qi's DMS consolation finals. All of his fans and team buddies were cheering him on, but alas, he lost in a very very close split game. The other super intense and crazy match of the weekend was A Men's Doubles finals. It featured Bintang Team's Minh Nguyen and Pratik Patel against India ex-national players Pridhivi Appenini and Parag Modi. The entire three games was neck to neck, with only one to two point spread. There was lots of great smashing, even better defending, crazy placement and control! During each rally, we were all holding our breaths. Thanks to much team spirit and cheering, our players won, taking up the 15th win for our team that weekend.

Here are the winners (please excuse me if I missed out anyone):

AMS -- 1st Minh Nguyen, 2nd Pratik Patel
ABWS -- 1st Priscilla Long
AMX -- 1st Minh Nguyen/Huong Tran
AMD -- 1st Minh Nguyen/Pratik Patel
AWD -- 2nd Huong Tran/Stella Chun

BMS -- 1st Jan Banquiles, 2nd Bryan Chow, semi's Chetan Potu
BMX -- 1st Jan Banquiles/Cally Chung
BMD -- 1st Chetan Potu/Jan Banquiles
BWD -- 1st Cally Chung/Tiffany Chua

CMS -- no one :(
CWS -- 1st Angela Lin, 2nd Cally Chung, semi's Lily Wen & Cindy Tam
CMX -- 1st Chetan Potu/Tiffany Chua
CMD -- 1st Justin Ma/Timothy Lam*
CWD -- no one :(

DMS -- 1st Danny Chan, 2nd Troi Chua, semi's HinHin Wong
DWS -- 1st Madeline Sporkert, 2nd Tracy Chu, semi's Allison Chang & Christine Wang, Con's Amy Ran
DMX -- 1st Danny Chan/Helena Wong
DMD -- no one :(
DWD -- 1st Lily Wen/Madeline Sporkert, Cons Christine Wang/ShuShu Hsia

Again, this was an awesome turnout (nearly perfect record!) and all of the coaches are very proud of you. Let's keep training hard and getting ready for the next tournament. For full results from Davis Badminton Club, check here.

2011 MIT Boston Open (5/13-5/15)

It was yet another adventure to MIT for Bintang's pro players to participate in this year's Boston Open! The weather was mild, the venue was nice. Being at MIT just made them all feel a little bit smarter, but remember, they were there for an athletic competition. :]


And despite the scare of the "China team" that was participating, our pro players once again proved themselves as champions. The China players who trained at the Li Yong Bo Academy turned out to be mostly juniors in their late teens; the females were insanely good but not so much the males (luckily for our guys). Ilian won all of his games in straight sets to claim the men's singles title. Minh and partner Yee won mixed doubles. Coach and partner Daphne won senior mixed doubles. And Minh and Holvy won men's doubles, for the second year in a row! It was a great weekend indeed and we are very proud of our coaches!

(BTW, congrats to team member Charlie Yang who was accepted to MIT, though he chose to attend Stanford instead -- yay, Charlie! :)

US Adult Nationals (4/23-4/25)

While the team was battling it out at UC Davis, a few of our top juniors and coaches went to Affinity Badminton Club to participate in the 2011 U.S. Adult Nationals Championships. This is by far the most prestigious US tournament each year. The juniors from the team played well against the more seasoned coaches and pro players. It is definitely a great learning experience for them.

From Bintang's pro players, only Ilian Perez and Jacky Zhang played. Ilian played singles and Jacky played doubles with Chun-Ming. Both played very well, but Jacky lost in semi's and was not able to play for 3rd because his partner suffered an ankle injury.

Ilian took out Arnold Setidadi in quarters and then had a long, grueling game against Howard Shu (from OCBC) in semifinals. Ilian pulled through and advanced to finals against Wijaya Agusriadi, a former Indonesian singles and mixed player. Sadly, on the day of finals, the majority of the people in the gym were cheering, coaching, and supporting Wijaya. Only Ricel, Ilian's mom, and a handful of Bintang team members came to watch and support Ilian (since the rest of us were in Davis). Nevertheless, Ilian played well, fought hard, and never gave up. He pushed to the limits and rose above as the victor, winning his opponent in two straight sets!

So Ilian is now the 2011 U.S. Men's Singles Champion -- the most prestigious title in the U.S.! A big hand to you from all the Bintang team and family. You make us very proud!!!

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

The Davis tournaments are a true Bintang tradition. In the past 8+ years, we have only missed one! And even though this time around it fell on the same weekend as Adult Nationals (which some of our players and coaches went to), we still managed to bring along a team of 50 plus players! Needless to say, all the courts in the gym were filled with Bintang players in the first and second rounds. And as always, on Sunday night, we were the last court still playing! And unfortunately, we only had four coaches for all the 50 of you. But, all of you played hard, fought to the last point, and showed everyone that once again, the Bintang team would shine through and bring home most of the trophies.

Results are as follows:

AMS 1st = Minh Nguyen
AWS 1st = Stella Chun
AWS 2nd = Huong Tran
AWS semi = Priscilla Long
AMD 1st = Minh Nguyen & Phu Khuu
AWD 1st = Huong Tran & Stella Chun
AMX 1st = Minh Nguyen & Huong Tran
AMX 2nd = Phu Khuu & Stella Chun

BMD cons = Gavin Chan & Jan Banquiles
BWD 1st = Huong Tran & Stella Chun
BMX semi = Jan Banquiles & Priscilla Long

CMS 1st = Justin Ma
CWS 1st = Cally Chung
CWS semi = Angela Lin
CMD 1st = Chetan Potu & Ryan Ke
CMX semi = Danny Chan & Cally Chung

DMS 2nd = Alex Cawit
DWS 1st = Lily Wen
DWS semi = Madeline Sporkert
DWS cons = ShuShu Hsia
DMD 1st = Justin Ma & Timothy Lam*
DMD cons = Yik Hin Wong & Patrick Tsai
DWD 2nd = Lily Wen & Christine Wang
DWD cons = Madeline Sporkert & Erika Sporkert
DMX 2nd = Yik Hin Wong & Tracy Chu

A big hand to all the winners! Thank you to everyone for participating and we hope you all had as great of a time as we did!

UBC Open Championships (4/15-4/17)

Our team attended the first UBC Open Championships, held April 15-17, at UBC in Fremont. Though the gym was quite small with only 8 courts used for the tournament, the tournament was run very smoothly with most games on time. Our team sent about 35 players this time and we brought home a good handful of medals! Our coaches dominated the Open flight in men's singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles too. Good job to all!!!

Results as follows (I am only listing 1st, 2nd, cons):

AMS 1st = Ilian Perez
AMS 2nd = Jacky Zhang
AMD 1st = Ilian Perez & Minh Nguyen
AMD 2nd = Jacky Zhang & Chun-ming Hua*
AMX 1st = Jacky Zhang & Yee Theng Lim*
U17 Boys Singles 1st = Chetan Potu
U17 Boys Singles 2nd = Jan Banquiles
U17 Boys Doubles 2nd = Jan Banquiles & Gavin Chan
U17 Mixed Doubles 2nd = Jan Banquiles & Cally Chung
U17 Girls Singles 2nd = Cally Chung
U15 Boys Singles 2nd = Justin Ma
U15 Boys Singles Cons = Darren Lo
U15 Boys Doubles 1st = Eric Cheung & Albert Li*
U15 Boys Doubles 2nd = Justin Ma & Brian Duong
U15 Girls Singles 2nd = Priscilla Long
U15 Mixed Doubles Cons = Darren Lo & Katie Lam
U11 Boys Singles 2nd = Karthik Kalyasundaraman
U11 Boys Doubles Cons = Karthik K & Eric Duong

If I am missing anything, please let me know. Also, if you have any photos to share, please pass them along! Again, good job to all for fighting hard and showing your Bintang spirit!

Junior International Team Trials (2/19-2/21)

JITT this year proved to be even more exciting than in all the past years. Well over two hundred kids gathered over President's Day Weekend at CBA to compete for the opportunity to represent the U.S. for international junior tournaments. And perhaps the most exciting news is that the Bintang Team qualified the most players for the U.S. Team! We had a total of 11 team members qualify -- the most of any club in all of the U.S.

And one truly amazing achievement too is that we had at least one, and in most cases 2 and even 3, team members place top four in boy's singles in every single age category! That truly reflects the depth our team carries. Good job to everyone -- you make us proud.

Results from our team as follows (I have listed anyone who placed in top 6). Those marked with asterisk have qualified for the U.S. Team:

U11BS
1st - Karthik Kalyanasundaram*

U11BD
6th - Eric Duong/Karthik Kalyanasundaram

U13BS
3rd - Gokul Kalyanasundaram*
4th - Bryce Kan*

U13BD
3rd - Bryan Kan/Ethan Low
4th - Stephen Ding/Gokul Kalyanasundaram

U15BS
1st - Justin Ma*
3rd - Eric Cheung*

U15BD
3rd - Justin Ma/Timothy Lam
5th - Darren Lo/Alan Chuang

U17BS
3rd - Chetan Potu*
5th - Bryan Chow

U17GS
4th - Angela Lin*
5th - Lily Wen
6th - Cally Chung

U17BD
2nd - Ryan Ke/Chetan Potu*
5th - Bryan Chow/Kevin Chan

U17GD
3rd - Tiffany Chua/Angela Lin
5th - Cally Chung/Madeline Sporkert

U19BS
2nd - Randy Ma*
3rd - Daniel Chow*
4th - Charles Yang*

Full tournament results can be found here and here.

Pictures can be found here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. Courtesy of Mrs. Sporkert. Enjoy!!!

Team Xmas New Year Party (1/1/11)

What a great way to kick off the New Year -- nothing less than a full blown team party with record attendance at Bintang Campbell! Thank you to everyone who attended and I hope you had as much fun as I did. With close to 100 team members and 10 coaches at the party, we nearly filled the waiting area with presents and kids.

The party started with the usual group name/slogan contest. I believe the winner was "The Bobsleds -- sliding our way to victory". Afterwards, we had the "Wrap a Present" game, where each group had to wrap one person as nicely, creatively, etc., as possible. The winner for that was Brian Li's group. Then there was the mittens and candy relay race. The coaches had to find a way to sneak in some conditioning, even though it's a party! ^_^ But then everyone took a break afterwards and refilled their calories.

And of course no Bintang xmas party is complete without the make-your-own-lyrics-about-your-coach Christmas carols! That was surely the highlight of the night. You guys have soooo much talent, especially when it comes to ratting on or making fun of your coaches, and of course the singing and acting too! (Hopefully none of you had to pay too dearly with conditioning the day after.) We definitely enjoyed the performances and were laughing to the point of tears for multiple songs.

The night wrapped up with the Secret Santa gift exchange. With almost a hundred kids there, it took well over 20 minutes to pass out all the gifts. But only a few seconds for everyone to rip off the giftwrap and open their gifts! Thank you again everyone for making this year's Bintang Team Xmas New Year Party the best one yet.