2006 Usa Junior Nationals

**dropper** · 07-13-2006, 11:14 PM

Anybody saw the Junior Nationals at the Orange County Badminton Club? I was there on Staurday and Sunday for the semis and the finals. There was some very good players. There was a girl, Cee Ketpura from Thailand who was playing in U17 group. She won the triple crown. I think she is going to be an excellent player if she keeps improving. Also, Howard Shu in U17 and Nick Jinadasa U22 also won triple crowns. I think the best match I saw was Nick and his sister Samantha MXD match against Eva Lee and Bart Chen of the OCBC. I mean the level of play of that match was very good.

**KZ** · 07-14-2006, 12:40 AM

are all of the winners asian?

**harimau** · 07-14-2006, 08:38 AM

Originally Posted by dropper

Anybody saw the Junior Nationals at the Orange County Badminton Club? I was there on Staurday and Sunday for the semis and the finals. There was some very good players. There was a girl, Cee Ketpura from Thailand who was playing in U17 group. She won the triple crown. I think she is going to be an excellent player if she keeps improving. Also, Howard Shu in U17 and Nick Jinadasa U22 also won triple crowns. I think the best match I saw was Nick and his sister Samantha MXD match against Eva Lee and Bart Chen of the OCBC. I mean the level of play of that match was very good.

Cee Ketpura only plays for the U-15 age group. And yes she indeed won the triple crown for that event.

But i dont think she can win the U-17 GS event this year since there is Joanne Chen whom she will not be able to beat at this time. But she is the promise/hope in the future if she continues to train.

**harimau** · 07-14-2006, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by **KZ**

are all of the winners asian?

Well most of the winners are ABC (American Born Chinese) whom trained here locally meaning domestically with a few exception of Cee Ketpura (used to train in Thailand came over last year), Thuy Hoang (Used to train with Vietnam Jr team before migrating to the US), Wu Qui Ming (used to train in China, SHang Hai provincial Jr team too), plus others from Hongkong, China as well but older like U19, U22 age groups.

**dropper** · 07-15-2006, 12:40 PM

[quote=harimau]Cee Ketpura only plays for the U-15 age group. And yes she indeed won the triple crown for that event.
quote]

Yes, you are right. It was my error. Cee was playing U15, not U17.
Not all the winners were Asian. There were very good white American players also. Also most of the juniors who won were born and raised in USA; so they may be called Asian American not Asian. Nicholas' and Samantha's father is Sri Lankan born and mother is white.

**Eurasian =--(O)** · 07-15-2006, 10:20 PM

I've played Nick before. I thought he only played mixed? Guess not.

**pelegri** · 07-16-2006, 12:45 AM

Most of the players in the West Coast are Asian Americans on one or two sides of their families, with a few exceptions. Most of the players in the East Coast are Caucasians, with a few exceptions. There are more West Coast players than East Coast players, at least in the last 3 Jr Nationals I've attended (Marblehead, Spokane, Anaheim).

- eduard/o

**pelegri** · 07-16-2006, 12:51 AM

I forgot to list the web site for the results:

http://tournamentsoftware.com/sport/....aspx?id=11476

And the PanAm site is:

http://tournamentsoftware.com/sport/....aspx?id=11698

**DinkAlot** · 07-16-2006, 03:35 AM

Originally Posted by Eurasian =--(O)

I've played Nick before. I thought he only played mixed? Guess not.

Nope, Nick plays singles and doubles as well.

**LazyBuddy** · 07-16-2006, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by harimau

Well most of the winners are ABC (American Born Chinese) whom trained here locally meaning domestically with a few exception of Cee Ketpura (used to train in Thailand came over last year), Thuy Hoang (Used to train with Vietnam Jr team before migrating to the US), Wu Qui Ming (used to train in China, SHang Hai provincial Jr team too), plus others from Hongkong, China as well but older like U19, U22 age groups.

Not to take away credits from the juniors. However, badminton is quite expensive for most new immigrantion families, for US economy. Therefore, in US (at least, east coast), you need a decent salary (or a family with decent salary) to fully enjoy and train for this sport...

**harimau** · 07-16-2006, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by LazyBuddy

Not to take away credits from the juniors. However, badminton is quite expensive for most new immigrantion families, for US economy. Therefore, in US (at least, east coast), you need a decent salary (or a family with decent salary) to fully enjoy and train for this sport...

Regarding the cost of training for badminton, it is quite expensive for the sport that has very few sponsors and prize money for the tournament is very small compared to tennis. That is why the sports is losing out on lots of very talented players who are so good but have no money or sponsors to train these talented athletes.

That is just too bad.....

**dropper** · 07-17-2006, 01:57 AM

Originally Posted by harimau

Regarding the cost of training for badminton, it is quite expensive for the sport that has very few sponsors and prize money for the tournament is very small compared to tennis. That is why the sports is losing out on lots of very talented players who are so good but have no money or sponsors to train these talented athletes.

I think the USA sports scene, especially at the Junior level is affected quite a bit by the scholarships to the Colleges and Universities. That is a lot of money. In California in the University of California system that could be worth more than $ 60,000. And for a private college such as Stanford it is easly worth $ 100,000 or more. Badminton is not a NCAA sport; so no scholarships; and no money to the athletes. Golf, Track, swimming, water polo, volleyball, soccer, softball, fencing etc. all provide scholarships to hundreds of college students for each sport. I think this is the key reason why juniors don't take up badminton at junior levels in USA. If there are no juniors, no adults either. I hope one of these days the head hunchos of badminton will figure this out.

**missbrainy12** · 08-05-2006, 06:22 PM

A few of my friends played in that tournament. Except we're from the midwest so badmintons not as intense here. But part of the reason a lot of juniors don't play is cause of the lack of scholarships, but then also most of the people at my high school think badminton is just a game for sissys. Boy, are they wrong.

**phaarix** · 08-05-2006, 10:52 PM

Originally Posted by missbrainy12

but then also most of the people at my high school think badminton is just a game for sissys. Boy, are they wrong.

Yeah, I hate that kind of attitude eh. My school's sort of split into two groups as far as that is concerned. The first group has never seen badminton played at even club level... that's the majority of the school, they think it's a sissy sport. The rest who have seen it, ALL realise how fast and intense it really is. Not one of them could say it's a sissy sport after actually seeing it played at a professional level. In fact a lot of those kids have taken it up and now play at my club!

**DinkAlot** · 08-05-2006, 11:28 PM

Originally Posted by missbrainy12

A few of my friends played in that tournament. Except we're from the midwest so badmintons not as intense here. But part of the reason a lot of juniors don't play is cause of the lack of scholarships, but then also most of the people at my high school think badminton is just a game for sissys. Boy, are they wrong.

I believe I saw your friends at SGVBC on July 4th, late night training there (other than them, there was no one at the club). They were using all MMOA equipment.

**Eurasian =--(O)** · 08-06-2006, 12:36 AM

Originally Posted by dropper

I think the USA sports scene, especially at the Junior level is affected quite a bit by the scholarships to the Colleges and Universities. That is a lot of money. In California in the University of California system that could be worth more than $ 60,000. And for a private college such as Stanford it is easly worth $ 100,000 or more. Badminton is not a NCAA sport; so no scholarships; and no money to the athletes. Golf, Track, swimming, water polo, volleyball, soccer, softball, fencing etc. all provide scholarships to hundreds of college students for each sport. I think this is the key reason why juniors don't take up badminton at junior levels in USA. If there are no juniors, no adults either. I hope one of these days the head hunchos of badminton will figure this out.

Badminton isn't even recognized as a sport by CIS (Canadian Intercollegiate Sports). Badmintoncanada has to apply when CIS does its bi-decade report on sports.

**Quasimodo** · 08-06-2006, 01:21 AM

Originally Posted by Eurasian =--(O)

Badminton isn't even recognized as a sport by CIS (Canadian Intercollegiate Sports). Badmintoncanada has to apply when CIS does its bi-decade report on sports.

That's bad. Here at least it's on the NCAA list of emerging sport (for women). Some years ago it's a full scholarship sport.