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.

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.