November 13, 2011: Reno Youth Bridge introduced its Student Achievement Program today as the Washoe County Middle Schools completed registrations for their After School Activity bridge classes and began preparing for their first tournament scheduled to be held Friday, December 30, 2011 at 9:30 AM at the Grand Sierra Hotel.
Known as RYBAP, the program automatically enrolls all registered students and also registers their teachers who have the opportunity to also participate based on how well their bridge teams perform and how many of their students play in RYB’s three major tournaments.
The program works as follows: Students earn RYBAP points for attending each of their weekly or bi-weekly after school bridge classes. They earn points for attending each of the Three RYB sponsored Major Tournaments and for playing bridge online with a teacher or one of the RYB Directors. They earn more points for ranking high in any of the three RYB major interscholastic duplicate bridge tournaments.
The first of these competitions is scheduled for this coming December 30th and the second is scheduled for April 21, 2012 at the John Ascuaga’s Nugget Hotel with a final year end tournament scheduled for June 2, 2012. The student or students who earn the most RYBAP points during the school year will receive a scholarship of $1000 that will be available for use for their tuition at a college of their choice.
There are some conditions for receiving the scholarship, including the requirement that the student must not only graduate from high school but they must have maintained a GPA that would qualify them for entrance to the University of Nevada at Reno (UNR). In addition to this scholarship, gift certificates of up to $500 will be awarded to the 10 next students earning the highest number of RYBAP points.
The WCSD bridge team teacher whose team wins the Spring Interscholastic Team Game Championship will receive a gift certificate for $250.00. The Teacher who has the most registered students in aggregate attend the three RYB Major Tournaments will receive a gift certificate of $250.00. All gift certificates are redeemable for any one of several major retailers and restaurants here in the Reno-Sparks area.
The December 30th tournament will be held at the Grand Sierra Resort during the ACBL District 21 Regional Tournament and will give the students their first look at the size and scope of big time ACBL duplicate bridge competition by some of the country’s best bridge players. Two formats will be used for the students at the December Tournament.
Our students who have just begun to learn bridge at the basic level will be able to compete in a “Mini Bridge” Tournament, a special type format that is used to introduce the students to the game and get them used to playing specified contracts. In addition, for the returning or more advance youth player, RYB will hold a regular “bid to contract” section and students will be qualified to earn their first master points as members of the ACBL.
In addition to winning trophies and RYBAP Points for gift certificates, the School bridge teams will compete in a Knock-out Duplicate Team game at the April 21st interscholastic tournament where the winning team will be presented with the RYB Silver Cup for display on their school’s Trophy Case and earn bragging rights for the following year. Watch this site for more information regarding youth tournaments.
Reno Youth Bridge, a 501(c)(3) non profit Nevada Corporation, is funded by the generous contributions from individuals, families and charitable foundations here in the Reno Community. None of the RYB Directors or Officers receive compensation for their services. WCSD Certified teachers at each of the participating schools do receive a stipend for their volunteer efforts to teach the game of Bridge to WCSD Middle School Students. If you would like to help us fund our program we have provided the convenience of Pay Pal Credit card services. Just click on the Donate Button on any page or call Bud Brewer at 775-849-4113. Thank You!