To all BC Friends! We are proud to announce that the Bintang Team had a *GREAT* performance at the Bay Area Open held this weekend (Feb 15-17) at SC in Milpitas. All of our team members who participated put on a great 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 of the Bintang Team WON the "A" level, Men's Singles Championship in a very intense and exciting game, with many people watching! Son Nguyen of the Bintang Team WON the "B" level, Men's Singles Championship, also in a very intense finals game. Not only did Son show great skill, he put on a great show, with his crazy flips and dives!!! Dominick Lim of the Bintang Team 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, Bintang Team took first to fourth place, beating out opponents from all over! Connie Hwang of Bintang Team WON the "B" level, Women's Singles Championship. BWS was round robin format and Connie beat all of her opponents in straight sets. Phoebe Lin of Bintang Team WON the "D" level, Women's Singles Championship. She had to fight hard in the finals match but won in straight sets. 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. -- Coach Phu and Stella
Good job, Bintang Team!!! It's great to see that American-bred badminton players are getting better and better. The sport is truly growing. Hats off to you, Coach Phu!
i can't really say I'm surprise because I played with some of them before, they're like freaking monsters in little kid bodies (especially Son).
Spirit of the game I came across some posts on the forum where there were negative comments about the recent BAO tournament and how there were not a lot of strong A players. As mentioned in a few other posts, the pool of players is out of everyone's control. (We had a few girls on our team who signed up for "A" women's flights, but unfortunately there were not enough participants so those events got cancelled. :crying For all we know, there could be super crazy ex-national players from China or Indonesia or there could be all locally trained players in the "A" level. Regardless of the competition, we all try our hardest and play our best, because in the end, it's all for the sport. We wholeheartedly believe that good sportsmanship and utmost integrity, both on and off the courts, are the most important characteristics for an athlete to follow. We continually strive to instill such values in all the kids on our team and beyond. Someone had replied to another post with "I think the guy is just bitter or something. Did't see him going to Bintang forum and blabb like that." Perhaps the guy missed our forum? Maybe he can tell us why he didn't post on this forum. Regardless of why he posted what he did, we strongly feel that good sportsmanship and encouragement of each other are important and we congratulate *all* the winners. Many of our top players have been competing for a few years now at most local and even some national tournaments. And surely, they don't always win. In fact, Serge lost in semi's last time and so never had the chance to play Che-Chang (last BAO's AMS 2nd place winner), who he played this time in finals. Son, who played "B" flight at BAO tournaments the past few times, had lost in semi's the last two times. He finally proved himself, beating the guy who placed 2nd in BMS at the last BAO, so it was surely a happy day for Son. A few players were not there due to the Thomas/Uber Cup trials and the Dave Freeman Classic down in SD, but the flights were still challenging and the winners had to fight hard to earn their championship whether it was "A" flight or "D" flight. We are happy for and proud of all of our kids who won and all the other winners out there, and we applaud all the rest of the participants for their efforts and spirit. Anyone who was at the tournament can definitely see the growth of the sport and the rising level of skill, with all these amazing U12 kids coming strong and the intense matches even at the "D" level. Badminton is surely growing in the U.S., and for that, we should all stand up and applaud. And we should remember that the spirit of the game lies as much in the game itself as in good sportsmanship, honesty, and integrity. -- Stella & Phu
