Summer Camp 2018

5th Annual SiVY Summer Camp

SiVY Bridge held its fifth annual summer bridge camp for youth players June 18th through 22nd. Thirty campers attended the camp: ten players completely new to the game and twenty more experienced players. 

Cheryl Haines taught the beginner class, aided by Margot Livenspargar, Kathie Shaw and youth players Claire Bellew and Lucy Huang. The campers learned quickly—they started at the very beginning with sorting hands and learning what a trick is, and by the end they were setting up long suits and counting their tricks. All campers knew enough bridge by the end of camp to participate in a mini duplicate game. 

Sarah Youngquist taught the more advanced class. Experienced SiVY youth players (David Zheng, Michael Hu, Michael Xu, and Michael Zheng), many of whom are on US national teams and/or have won youth championships, acted as table mentors. The campers were introduced to many bidding and play ideas. Students developed excellent technique--throughout the week the students were stopping and thinking at trick one to count their winners and/or losers and develop a plan, and students began to practice counting out suit distributions, points and tricks during the play of the hand. The campers readily grasped many advanced play concepts such as finesses, ducking to set up a long suit, ruffing to set up a long suit, and some even learned a dummy reversal.

Many campers attended camp for the second time, and for one camper this year was her fourth year of bridge camp! Bridge is often a family affair, and this year’s camp was no exception. Many campers were introduced by their families and have parents or grandparents who play. One camper was a table helper’s brother. in addition, we had four sets of siblings, one pair coming as far away as Illinois. They didn’t win the award for furthest distance travelled to attend camp, though, as one camper was all the way from Singapore.

Tournament

At the end of camp tournament, Jamin Xie and Kevin Jiang won their direction and the overalls with a 64.88% game, and Isabel Zhou and Madison Yates won the other direction with a 61.90% game. Owen Jiang – Edwin Liu and Devin Ding – Saahas Kohli placed first in the 2nd strata for less experienced players. Winston Li – Elijah Schacter and Gregory Liu – Jesse Miller came in 2nd in their directions. 

Happy Campers

Happy Campers and Staff

Crazy Campers

Our Wonderful Volunteers

Bridge Camp is entirely organized by and taught by volunteers. Randy Ryals was the camp organizer and put in countless hours ensuring that the camp would run smoothly. In addition to teaching, Cheryl Haines played a large role in organizing the camp. Qing Lu, the mother of one of the youth mentors Michael Hu, prepared food all week for both campers and volunteers. (One camper made a point of telling her grandparents how great the food was.) Stephanie Youngquist organized fun activities and prizes for campers all week, which were greatly enjoyed by the campers. Frank Smoot volunteered at the camp tournament at the end of the week as the emcee. Alan Templeton and Ying Liu helped with setup, and Alan was our photographer as well as a table mentor. Finally, special thanks goes to Will Watson for directing our tournament at the end of the week. Camp would not have been possible without the help of the many volunteers.

If you would like to contribute to SiVY's efforts to introduce young people to the challenge of bridge, consider joining us as Volunteer or making a tax deductible Donation.