Philadelphia, Oct 1-16, 2010

The USBF is responsible for selecting, training and supporting United States teams in World Youth Team Championships. ACBL transfers $50,000 each year from the ACBL Junior Fund to USBF to provide funding for Junior teams. In addition, USBF supports Juniors who wish to participate in other World Junior competitions and in World Junior Bridge Camps.

USBF Junior Coordinator

The USBF Board has appointed Joe Stokes as USBF Junior Coordinator. Please let Joe know of your interest in the USBF Junior program or of any and all concerns you have about it.

2010 World Junior Championships

In 2010, the World Junior Youth and Youngsters events will be held in conjunction with the World Bridge Series. Eighteen invited Youth teams will compete for the Patino Cup; eighteen invited Youngster teams will compete for the Damiani Cup. The USBF will send two teams to each event. The teams for the Patino Cup were selected at the Junior Trials held in Washington DC in July 2009. Those teams are:

USA1: Jeremy Fournier, Roger Lee, Jason Chiu, Kevin Fay, Marius Agica, Dan Wolkowitz. NPC Kevin Wilson.

USA2: Zachary Brescoll, Kevin Dwyer, Dan Goldfein, Sam Katz, Owen Lien, Matt Meckstroth. NPC Mike Cappelletti, Jr.

The two US teams for the Damiani Cup were  selected at a Trials held June 26-27. The winners are:

USA1: Adam Kaplan, Adam Grossack, Alex Hudson, John Marriott III, Jourdain Patchett, Jesse Stern.

USA2: Zandy Rizzo, Murphy Green, Andrew Jeng, Richard Jeng. A third pair will be added.

2010 World University Games

USBF will be sending a team to the 2010 World University Games, to be held in Chinese Taipei August 2-9, 2010. The team is:

Kevin Dwyer, Owen Lien, Jeremy Fournier, Roger Lee, who won the FISU Trials, with Victor Chubukov & Howard Liu, who were added to the team. NPC is Mike Cappelletti, Jr.

In additon, a second team will represent USBF at the 2010 World University Games, at their own expense. The team, who finished second in the FISU Trials, is:

Mitch Towner, Cameron Shunta, Alex Hudson & John Marriott, III.

Good luck to both teams in Taiwan. 

USA Bridge Juniors Facebook Group

World Championship Successes

The first World Youth Team Championship was held in 1987. Between 1987 and 2005, a World Youth Team Championship was held in each odd numbered year. From 2006 on, these championships have been held in even numbered year. In 2003, a Schools championship, open to players under 21 was added; that event is now called "Youngsters" (don't shoot the messenger, USBF didn't have anything to do with choosing the name) and is also held in even numbered years. The Youth event is open to players under 26.

United States teams won the World Youth Team Championship in 1991, 2001, 2005 and 2006, and won lower medals in four other years.

Articles By & About our Juniors

A North American Junior team won the 2007 South American Junior Championship in Quito, Equador. Read their report of the tournament. What was a North American team doing in South America? A few weeks before the event, the tournament organizers asked USBF to send a team to the South American Junior Championship because they had only 5 South American teams and the event would run much more smoothly with an even number of teams. Luckily, Erin Anderson, David Barth, Mike Develin, Jason Feldman and Ari Greenberg were able to go and the USBF Junior fund had enough money to pay their airfare (the South American organizers paid all of the team's expenses in Quito). Your contributions to the Junior Fund let us support our Juniors this way. Thank you!

David Banh, a USBF Junior member and one of the players on the Red Schools Team in Thailand this summer, was featured in a Washington Post story on Wednesday, Sept. 20. Eighteen year old David graduated from the University of Virginia after only one year! And found time to play bridge during the year. He and partner Jeremy Fournier were ranked 14th in the Butler ranking of pairs in the Schools championship in Thailand, the best performance by any US Schools pair. Their team finished sixth in the Round Robin phase of the event, only 8 Victory Points out of qualifying for the Knockout phase.

Supporters of Junior Bridge

The USBF Junior Fund would not exist without the generous support of the following entities and individuals. Thank you all for your generous support.

Overstock.com
North American Youth Bridge Foundation
Bridge Base Online
ACBL DIstrict 3 (Eastern New York (not New York City), Northern New Jersey)
ACBL District 24 (New York City and Long Island)
ACBL Unit 358 (Yuma, Arizona)
ACBL Unit 106 (North Jersey, New Jersey)
ACBL Unit 188 (Westchester, New York)
ACBL Unit 497 (Berkeley-El Cerrito-Richmond, California)
ACBL Unit 515 (Balboa, California)
ACBL Unit 532 (Southern Gold Coast, California)
Andrea Bagani
Randy Corn
Mark Feldman
Rose Meltzer
Lou Ann OpRourke
Beverly Perry
Judy Prescott
Jim Sternberg
Melanie Tucker
Jerome Zimmerman
Anonymous donors

Add Your Name to the Supporters
of the USBF Junior Program

You can help USBF continue to support United States Juniors in World events. Go to our donations page and make a contribution by mail or online. Our young players need your support. Thank you.