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.

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.