All Things Bintang

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

2011-11-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

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)

2011-05-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-04-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-04-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-04-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-03-16T03:13:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-02-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

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.

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

2010-12-26T14:27:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-12-12T00:14:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-11-12T02:12:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-11-12T01:56:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-11-12T01:30:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-11-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-11-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-10-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-08-14T16:11:00.001-07:00

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)

2010-05-15T00:44:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-04-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-03-29T17:30:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-03-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-03-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-02-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-02-19T17:31:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-02-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-02-12T19:11:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-02-12T18:45:00.000-08:00

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.

Affinity Open & USAB badminton video (12/5-12/6)

2009-12-09T00:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend started off like any other normal weekend -- the kids all trained and then some stayed to play open gym and so on. But in the background, there were some exciting events going on!

Paula and a handful of kids (Tiffany, Troi, HinHin, Priscilla, and Christine) were involved in the making of a new badminton video organized by USA Badminton. The video aims to promote the sport by introducing the basics of badminton, including proper grip, stroke, footwork, etc., and was filmed at Moreau High School in Hayward. Thank you to Mr. Chua who helped get Bintang's coaches and kids to be a part of this production. We anxiously wait to see our Bintang stars in this!

While the film was rolling on one side of the bay, there was no lack of action on the other side of the bay. Minh participated in the Affinity Open 2009 tournament. He had a stunning performance on Saturday, taking out the new Affinity coach in semifinals in straight sets and then also winning his finals match in straight sets! (Unfortunately, he slipped in his first game during semi-finals and twisted his ankle, but like any true athlete, he shook it off and pushed himself through. On Sunday, Minh and a sick :[ Coach Phu paired up to play doubles. They lost in semifinals in a very close and thrilling three set match. Thank you to all those who came out to watch and cheer!

Good job to all of our pro players for their performance and for their efforts in pushing this sport that we all love, whether it be raising the bar of competition, helping to make a badminton video, or training our future stars!

Thanksgiving Team Party

2009-11-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's Thanksgiving Potluck and Funky Doubles Tournament! Needless to say, the food was scrumptious. So many varieties of meat, veggies, fruits, desserts, more desserts, and drinks.

But even better was the entertainment -- the exciting, super intense matches between the parent/coach pairs and the students. Boy were the parents vicious when it came to the tournament! No mercy for their opponents. We were all kept at the edge of our seats, as the rallies went back and forth. Hopefully none of you will be too sore tomororw. :)

We hope everyone had fun playing, eating, and spectating! Thank you everyone for the great food and entertainment. Congratulations to the winners!

Bintang Funky Doubles 2009
Winner: Mrs. Lin (Phoebe & Angela's mom) & Coach Paula
Runner-up: Mrs. Yang (Christine's mom) & Coach Topher
Cons Winner: Mrs. Sporkert (Madeline & Erika's mom) & Matt Yim

And parents, you have one year to get ready for next year's Funky Doubles tournament! Practice hard! :)

Here is the link to the first set of photos, courtesy of Mrs. Sporkert.

Miami Pan Am Int'l

2009-11-20T03:03:00.000-08:00

While most of us were here playing BAO tournament, half of our coaches flew off to Florida for the Miami Pan Am International (11/11-11/14). This was truly an international tournament, with players from Denmark, Spain, Canada, and many South American countries. Surprisingly there were very few USA players.

Our coaches did quite well, considering this was their first international tournament in quite a while. Unfortunately, Minh was sick for most of the tournament (and has obviously brought it back home!). Anyhow, our coaches played hard and played well.

Topher made it to quarterfinals in MS. Minh and Topher made it to semi-finals in MD. Minh and Paula made it to semi-finals in XD. And...Paula and her partner Priscilla won WD! Congrats and we look forward to seeing even more better results at these big tournaments in the near future. ^_^

Link to complete results: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=B42DB73D-A503-4A55-B10E-E9A846B8C390

BAO Fall 2009 (11/14-11/15)

2009-11-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

This year's BAO Fall 2009 was surely a long and tiring tournament. :[ Saturday's matches ran from 7.30am to 11.30pm! One of the reasons it was such a long tournament was because the number of participants was HUGE. And we can partly thank our own club for that. This was the first ever tournament for Dublin team!

We had close to 60 players from Sunnyvale team and a handful of players from both Campbell and Dublin teams. With so many kids and unfortunately three of our coaches MIA, it was a very busy weekend for us. The "best" win at this tournament was that all 4 semi-finalists in DMS were from our club! There were a lot of close and very intense games overall. Good job to everyone and congrats to the winners!

Here are the results for our team:

U12 Boys Singles Winner -- Brian Duong
U12 Boys Singles Semi-finalist -- Bryce Kan
U12 Girls Singles Cons Winner -- Madeline Sporkert
U16 Boys Singles Cons Winner -- James Wang
D-Junior XD Cons Winner -- Derek Teng & Lily Wen
D-Junior Doubles Semi-finalist -- James Wang & Justin Ma

DMS Winner -- Ryan Ke
DMS Runner-up -- Jack Ma
DMS Semi-finalist -- Lawrence Luk
DMS Semi-finalist -- Derek Chao
DWS Cons Winner -- Hensley Ellefritz
DMX Semi-finalist -- Jason Guanlao & Hensley Ellefritz
DMX Semi-finalist -- Bryan Chow & Hilary Lai
DMD Semi-finalist -- Daniel Chow & Jack Ma
DWD Winner -- Priscilla Long & Micaela Lum*
DWD Semi-finalist -- Hilary Lai & Candy Zhang*

CMS Semi-finalist -- Daniel Chow
CWS Cons Winner -- Priscilla Long

BWS Winner -- Joyce Lee
BWS Runner-up -- Christine Yang
BXD Semi-finalist -- Matt Yim & Christine Yang
BWD Runner-up -- Joyce Lee & Tiffany Chua
BWD Semi-finalist -- Catherine Wu & Phoebe Lin
BMD Winner -- Abhijit A & Harjot Singh **
BMD Semi-finalist -- Charlie Yang & Randy Ma

* denotes from another club. ** denotes open gym member.

Memorial Weekend Campout

2008-05-27T16:01:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the campout at Bintang Sunnyvale. Hope you guys had as much fun playing the games as Coach and I had watching you guys play! ^_^ Ryan has uploaded the photos he took. You can find them here:

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/cc254/bintangpix/SleepOver08

Guest password is the name of our club. Enjoy!

May Team Ranking

2008-04-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars. The May team ranking will be on Saturday, 5/10, from 12pm-2pm! Practice hard and good luck to all.

April Updates

2008-04-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while! Life has been so hectic at Bintang lately, with the grand opening of Campbell end of March and then team ranking this past weekend...it just never stops!

As Coach mentioned yesterday, team ranking will now be once a month. The format will actually change a bit, so everyone can potentially move up two spots or move down two spots. So remember to practice hard every day!!! The date for the May ranking will be decided by this weekend. Also, we plan to have a little fun event towards the end of May. Details TBA.

Here are upcoming April events:

4/12-4/13: 2008 Spring USBDF @ OCBC
4/26-4/27: 2008 Spring Davis Open @ UC Davis

The nice, sunny weather is great, but it also means conditioning and double jumps until your body breaks! ^_^

Team Ranking

2008-03-03T15:21:00.001-08:00

...team ranking is coming up soon! Keep practicing so you are ready!!! ^_^

JITT & Spring USBDF Junior Int'l

2008-02-26T16:25:00.000-08:00

The entry form deadline for JITT and Spring USBDF Junior Int'l tournament are coming up soon! Please review the entry forms and turn them in ASAP.

JITT - only for those who are qualified
http://www.ocbadmintonclub.com/pdf/2008JITT.pdf
Please fill in and return to Stella/Coach by Thursday (2/28)

Spring USBDF Junior Int'l Tournament
http://www.ocbadmintonclub.com/media/2008USBDFSpringJrIntl.pdf
Please fill in and return to Stella/Coach by Sunday (3/2)

Upcoming Events

2008-02-24T16:04:00.001-08:00

Here is a list of upcoming events:

3/29 & 3/30 - team ranking! DO NOT miss out on this. @ Bintang Sunnyvale
4/11 - 4/14 - USBDF Spring Jr International and JITT @ OCBC
4/26 - 4/27 - Davis Spring Open @ UC Davis

Qualifications and details of the events above will be emailed out.

Update from Ryan Ngo

2008-02-24T16:02:00.001-08:00

Hopefully everyone still remembers Ryan Ngo!!! He should be back in a few months...hopefully he'll be super crazy and rock the tournaments when he comes back. Here is an update from him:

Hello EveryoneIve uploaded new pictures of all the boys that are in my training center of the city. Those are all the coachs that teach the boys. A few of the sites i walked past and just noticed that were interesting.Just to let you all know i am now at the Nanjing Sports Institute. Its a School for sports and they have academics here as well. Its every professional sport china is into. basketball, badminton, soccer, gymnastics, tennis, swimming, track and field... thats al i know of for now. Theres a cafateria and all that too. Im currently staying in a dorm. bymyself. but there is an extra bed so it looks like i may have a room-mate or something.Trainign here is a little mroe tough and more conditioning. than my last place. but good thing i put myself into good shape before i left.I wake up 5am Get to the trainign center 510- stretch and warm up till 530 than its conditioning till 730. than after that i have my breakfast and just relax till 200-700 training. in between i plan to do a little of conditioning myself. caiuse all the other guys here are incredibly strong and fast so i plan to run the hills around here. Its all uphill this training center so thats good. The Courts are either yonex/kason mats. and the lights ill take pictures of those they are hard to explain.Girls and Boys training in differant gyms.Just in case some of you dont remember here is the link to the pictures: http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/hh128/Ryan_Ngo/China%20trip
guest password is bintang

Spring 2008 Bay Area Open

2008-02-21T18:55:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to everyone on the team who played the 2008 Bay Area Open held last weekend (Feb 15-17)! All of you put on outstanding performance and displayed excellent sportsmanship and willpower. The Bintang Team had an almost CLEAN SWEEP in singles across all the flights, reflecting our team's breadth and depth!!!

Thomas Blanchet WON the "A" level, Men's Singles Championship in a very intense and exciting game, with many people watching! It got more and more intense towards the end of the third match and Coach almost had a heart attack. ^_^

Son Nguyen WON the "B" level, Men's Singles Championship, also in a very intense finals game against one of his long time on-court rivals. Not only did Son display great skill, he put on a very entertaining show, with his crazy flips and dives!!!

Dominick Lim WON the "C" level, Men's Singles Championship, over teammate Kendrick Uong. Both of them had to fight teammates Brent Dano and Francis Yao in semi's to play the finals. In the "C" level men's singles, we took first to fourth place, beating out opponents from all over! The two best matches in this category were Kendrick taking out the #1 seed in quarterfinals and Brent taking out an ex-Bintang player in first round!

Connie Hwang WON the "B" level, Women's Singles Championship. BWS was round robin format and Connie beat all of her opponents in straight sets. Not too hard there.

Phoebe Lin WON the "D" level, Women's Singles Championship. She had to fight hard in the finals match but won in straight sets. (Too bad Catherine was sick. Otherwise, the two of them would probably have met in finals.)

Congratulations also goes out to the rest of the winners from our team. Charlie Yang took 2nd in "D" level Men's Singles. Christine Yang took 2nd in "Under 12" level of Girl's Singles. Chetan Potu won consolation finals in "D" level Men's Singles.

A big hand goes out to all of you! Keep up the hard work and great dedication. We are very, very proud.

Happy Birthday, Coach Phu!

2008-02-21T18:53:00.001-08:00

We wish Coach Phu a very happy birthday! One year older he is, but still more immature than the youngest junior we have on the team. ^_^ We wish him many more years of fun and excitement coaching all of us.

P.S. Thanks to everyone for your best wishes and for coming to surprise him! I will post pics soon.

Happy New Year!

2008-02-06T21:40:00.001-08:00

Wishing everyone a very happy Chinese New Year! ^_^

Here is an update from Ryan in China:

Hey Everyone,

You should all know im perfectly fine here. im Alive and very well. The training here is very intensive and at the same time really entertaining. The Kids here are very hard workers. They practically train all day and night. They train with great spirt and everytime they hit a smash, they let out a loud roar. well they yell SOOO liek dominick. If u dont know what that sounds like you can ask dominick to do it for you now.

Even the girls yell. Especially when they clear and SMASH. If you all look at my pictures ive posted up The two girls are 9 and 10. and They are here to train professionally.. They live at the training center and train everyday for about 4 hours and condition and jump rope on their own for fun. Right outside where they sleep and eat.

And the guys. The two Shortest guys are always 9 and 10. And they are just as dedicated as the girls. Right after a 4 hour training session they work out for an extra 30 minutes and Run for an extra 30.

Everyone here has a short resemblence of you guys back home. I guess thats why most peolpe say all Asians look alike huh. Haha... It makes me miss you all back home alot. I hope you are all training hard . cause im bragging about you all ALOT here. Saying you all train hard and how our slogan is Never give Up NEver Surrender.

These next two weeks. Since its New years here Or Spring fesitval everyone is on break. So all the professional players are coming back to help train the kids and play alot. Ive gotten to play a few and its very fun. Its fun cause i get to play my heart out with no regrets.

http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/hh128/Ryan_Ngo/China%20trip/

Heres the link to my pictures and the guestpassword is bintang

I hope you all are training hard and make me proud at BAO im hopeing for some great results another D C And maybe a B win for me please.

have a great new year everyone

--Ryan

Team Lunar New Year Party

2008-01-28T22:39:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the year of the rat, we will have a team party on Saturday between 12pm and 2pm. There will be *fun* games with prizes. ;) We will also practice doubles for BAO. Don't miss out on the fun!!!

No Practice Wed - Fri

2008-01-08T22:57:00.000-08:00

There will be no practice Wed (1/9), Thu (1/10), and Fri (1/11). Everyone is encouraged to come to open gym to hit and play some games. Please check back for updates or changes to the schedule. Practice will resume on Saturday.

Message from Ryan in China

2008-01-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

We found out yesterday that Ryan is *alive* and well! Here is a note from him to the team:

Hey everyone i hope you miss me a lot.

First, im sure everyone is wondering how im doing. I'm great actually. Everyone here is nice to me and treat me like i was leo back home hahah...
Everyone here reminds me of you guys ranging from short kids with amazing slices like Justin to super dark skinned guys with super smash like Son.
Although the kids I train with are a lot younger (all the kids i train with range from 9-14...lolol), they are about my skill level! They train with such a passion here it's out of this world. Everytime they think they do a good shot they scream SOOOOO really loud. every kid, not just some. And one day the coach came super late and all the girls just did double jumps for fun... the girls are 7-8...Karen's age. They can do up to 50 about from what i counted.

okay thats all i have time for today..

I miss everyone

Train hard and train with passion!

Bye --RYan

Upcoming Events

2008-01-06T21:42:00.001-08:00

Here is a timeline of upcoming events:

January - tournament qualifier for D level for BAO
February - Spring Bay Area Open @ SC
March - team ranking @ Bintang
April - Davis Spring Open @ UC Davis

Train hard and prepare for all these exciting events!

Happy 2008!!!

2008-01-03T18:21:00.000-08:00

We wish everyone a very happy 2008! May the coming year be filled with an abundance of bunny hops and plyo's, 10-minute smash and drop drills, and infinite double jumps, and of course, many trophies at tournaments, more silly games during parties, and lots of fun and laughter! Keep working hard and playing hard, Team Bintang!!!

Holiday Team Party!

2007-12-18T21:52:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year again!
Christmas tress are out, holiday lights are up.
Santa's telling his reindeers giddyup giddyup!
Let's get together - the Bintang team - for some holiday fun.
Don't worry, we're not going to condition or run.
Good food, fun games, and nice gifts will be there.
Don't say no, don't you dare!!!

OLDER GROUP PARTY:
Friday 12/21, 7pm to 11pm
Coach's House

YOUNGER GROUP PARTY:
Saturday 12/22, 12pm to 2pm
Bintang Gym

Don't forget to bring your Secret Santa gift in a black bag (trash bag is ok). Write the name of the person it's for on it. Do *not* write your own name on it!

2007 USBDF Winter Jr Intl Results

2007-12-13T22:09:00.001-08:00

2007 USBDF Winter Junior Int'l Tournament
... OCBC ... 12/7-12/9 ...

This year, the tournament held true to its name. A handful of players coming from top countries such as Malaysia, Phillipines, Peru, and Mexico showed U.S. players how intense badminton can be, even at the very young ages. Nevertheless, Bintang team players fought hard and gave a great show of skill and spirit. This was the first junior tournament for a few of the kids and it was surely memorable for them. The final team results are as follows:

U9BS Consolation - Bryce Kan
U9GS Consolatoin - Karen Ma
U9MX 4th Place - Eric Duong & Jessica Chang*
U9MX Consolation - Bryce Kan & Karen Ma
U9GD 4th Place - Karen Ma & Lulu Yu*
U9BD 1st Place - Umang Srivastav & Andre Wang*
U9BD 3rd Place - Bryce Kan & Eric Duong
U11BS 4th Place - Brian Duong
U11MX 1st Place - Brian Duong & Christine Yang
U11BD 4th Place - Brian Duong & Justin Ma
U11BD Consolation - Harsh Srivastav & James Wang
U11GD 2nd Place - Christine Yang & Candy Zhang*
U13BS 3rd Place - Chetan Potu
U13BS 4th Place - Martin Hung
U13MX Consolation - Chetan Potu & Christine Yang
U13BD 2nd Place - Chetan Potu & Martin Hung
U13GD 3rd Place - Claudia Li & Hilary Lai
U17BS Consolation - Son Nguyen
U19BS Consolation - Son Nguyen

*denotes partner is not from our club

Good job to everyone!

No Practice 11/22 and 11/23!

2007-11-19T22:36:00.001-08:00

There is NO practice on Thanksgiving Day (11/22) or day after Thanksgiving (11/23). Open gym on 11/23 is from 11am to 11pm, so come on down and burn off some of those calories from Thanksgiving dinner and practice doubles with your permanent partner!

Thanks to all those who participated in the Team and Family Thanksgiving Tournament. Hope everyone had fun! Congrats to the winners:

Rec Doubles
1st : Bryce Kan & Danny Kan (Bryce's dad)
2nd : Larissa Wen & Yong Wen (Larissa's dad)
cons: Justin Ma & James Wang

Competitive Doubles
1st : Terence Hua & Matt Yim
2nd : Joey Nguyen & Francis Yao
cons: Martin Hung & Randy Ma

Super Doubles
1st : Nate Le & Dominick Lim

Complete results can be found here: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=17883

Good job again to everyone and have a happy, happy Thanksgiving!!!

Team Thanksgiving Party 11/17!

2007-11-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

Since everyone played so well at BAO and all the parents and siblings were so supportive, Coach has decided to treat everyone to pizza, soda, and sweets on Saturday (11/17) for the Thanksgiving party! So no need to bring food, unless you have an urge to whip up some goodies. The party will be this Saturday (11/17) from 12pm to 2pm at Bintang.

We will be holding two separate doubles tournaments during the party.

1. Recreational Tournament
This is good for the less competitive players, i.e. juniors and parents or siblings who play for fun and just want a good workout.

2. Competitive Tournament (Funky style)
This is for the competitive players, i.e. those on the tournament squad or high school team. There will be no mercy this time! Smashing *will* be allowed! However, high level players (A,B,C level) should still partner with lower level players (D level) so the teams are more fair.

You can choose to play in either of the tournaments but not both. Everyone coming to the party (even if you are not playing the tournament) needs to RSVP on the box to the right, so we know how much food to prepare. Please also mark in the RSVP box whether you will be playing the tournament. If you already have a partner for the tournament, please enter their name as well. If you want to play but don't have a partner, leave the partner field blank. We will pair up those who need partners.

We look forward to a fun Thanksgiving party!!! Bring your badminton gear and a hearty appetite! ^_^ Remember to RSVP! One RSVP per person.

Bay Area Open Fall 2007 Tournament

2007-11-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

Once again, great job to everyone who participated in the Bay Area Open tournament this past weekend (11/9-11/11). Our team racked up a handful of trophies. Everyone played very well and fought hard to the very end. And without a doubt, our team had the BEST team spirit! You guys were amazing - both team members and parents - everyone cheered loud and proud. Thank you for being such a wonderful team!

Congratulations to all the winners:

AMS semi - Thomas Blanchet
AWS 1st - Stella Chun
AWS 2nd - Ira Boboshko
AMD semi - Coach & Thomas Blanchet
AWD semi - Ira Boboshko & Joyce Kwong
AWD semi - Stella Chun & Quy Huynh
BMS semi - Son Nguyen
CMS 1st - Nate Le
CMS semi - Dominick Lim
CMX 2nd - Son Nguyen & Stella Chun
DMS 1st - Brent Dano
DMS semi - Patrick Long
DMS semi - Charlie Yang
DWS cons - Phoebe Lin

Keep working hard for the next tournament!!! Pictures from tournament will be posted shortly.

Thanksgiving Pot Luck Party 11/17!!!

2007-11-05T21:33:00.000-08:00

Come join in the food and fun! The Bintang Team Family Thanksgiving Pot Luck party will be on Saturday 11/17 from 12:00pm to 2:00pm. We will have a funky doubles tournament again and there will be great gobbly prizes for winners!

An RSVP form will be set up shortly on this blog. Please start thinking of what you would like to bring for the potluck and who you would like to play with in the tournament! ^_^

No Practice Fri - Sun (11/9-11/11)

2007-11-05T21:29:00.000-08:00

There will be no practice Friday (11/9), Saturday (11/10), and Sunday (11/11) this week, because the tournament squad will be competing in the Bay Area Open Tournament. Please come cheer on your teammates! The tournament will be held at Smash City in Milpitas.

Happy Halloween!!!

2007-11-01T13:19:00.001-07:00

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween filled with lots of candy, especially chocolate!!! Pictures from our team Halloween Party have been uploaded.

Pumpkin contest winners: "The Bucktooth Pumpkin" by Hannah, Sophie, Chetan, Umang

Halloween skit winners: "Walking the Penguin" by Jack, Albert, Catherine, Linda

Good job to Leo and team for throwing/catching the most candycorns! Start thinking or shopping for next year's costumes! ^_^

Davis Tournament Results

2007-10-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to everyone who played the Fall Davis Tournament this weekend. You guys all played hard and fought to the very last point...and then some. Coach was very impressed with how well everyone played and with the great show of skill, talent, good sportsmanship, and above all, team spirit. I think everyone at the tournament could see and hear our cheerleading squad! And a big thank you to all the parents for their support as well.

Great job to all those who played and to those who brought home medals to show their victory. Our team's results were astounding:

AMS 2nd - Thomas Blanchet
BMS 1st - Son Nguyen
BMS 2nd - Leo Lee
BMS semi - Ryan Ngo
CMS 2nd - Kendrick Uong
CMS semi - Nate Le
DMS 1st - Francis Yao
DWS 2nd - Catherine Wu
DWS semi - Phoebe Lin

AMD 2nd - Coach & Thomas Blanchet
AWD 1st - Stella & Quy Huynh
AWD 2nd - Ira Boboshko & Joyce Kwong
CMD 2nd - Nate Le & Ryan Ngo
DMD 2nd - Francis Yao & Matt Yim
DWD semi - Catherine Wu & Christine Yang

Good job again and keep working hard!

Davis Tournament This Weekend --- No Practice

2007-10-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

There is no practice Friday (10/26) to Monday (10/29). Practice will resume on Tuesday (10/30).

Good luck to everyone playing Davis Fall Open this weekend!!!

Team Halloween Party

2007-10-16T14:26:00.001-07:00

Annual Bintang Team Halloween party will be this Saturday (10/20) from 7pm to 10pm at Coach's house. If you need address or directions, email bintangteam.

This is fun team gathering. Everyone should try to drop by. Come in the craziest, funniest, silliest, scariest, cutest, or most creative costume you can imagine! We will have a costume contest and thrilling games, watch jaw-dropping movies, and have witch-brewed snacks and desserts. Join the fun.

Please RSVP in the box to the right by Thursday evening. One RSVP per person! We need to prepare enough snacks prizes, and games.

Tournament qualifier on Fri 10/12 - no practice!

2007-10-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

Tournament qualifier/team ranking for Nate's group is on Friday (10/12) at 3:30pm. There is NO practice for the rest of the groups. Good luck to all!

Please check your schedules to see whether you can participate in the Davis Fall Open (10/27-10/28) or Bay Area Open (11/9-11/11). We will need to have a final list of participants by Sunday.

No Practice Friday 10/5!

2007-10-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

Coach Phu, Thomas, Ryan, and Leo will be playing the GGBC/UCB Open which starts Friday early afternoon. We wish them all good luck!

Winter 2007 Tournaments

2007-09-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

There are several tournaments coming up in the next few months. Here is a list of those we will participate in:

Davis Fall Open 2007
When: 10/27 - 10/28
Where: UC Davis Rec Hall

Bay Area Open Fall 2007
When: 11/9 - 11/11
Where: Smash City

USBDF Winter 2007
When: 12/7 - 12/9
Where: OCBC

Qualifier for D level players for Davis and BAO tournaments will be held 10/12-10/14. Qualifications for USBDF will be determined shortly.

Bintang Team Blog

2007-09-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Bintang Team blog! I will post all updates, news, events, anything-and-everything-Bintang-team-related here. Please check frequently and let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions on anything.