The Year end Pirs Championships will be held at the Reno Bridge Center located at 2850 Wrondel Way. Wrondel Way runs parallel to South Virgnia Street one block east at aboout the location olf the Peppermill Hotel and Casino. Teachers should inquire of the members olf their class who will attend and if any of them need transportation.

April 14, 2013: Erin Walsh is a student at The Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology (AACT) High School. In addition to being proficient in academics, Erin is a member of the AACT Bridge Team. Last fall she suffered a mysterious malady which caused the loss of her sight. As a result, while she continues able to audit her high school classes, she was restricted from unaccompanied access to the campus after school activities. This caused her to have to be picked up from school by her mother at the end of the day’s regular curriculum classes and prevented her free access to the library or study areas during that period between her last class and the participation in her passion, learning contract bridge as a member of the school’s Bridge team. The Directors of Reno Youth Bridge, Inc. the non-profit organization responsible for teaching and administering interscholastic bridge competition in the Washoe County School District, met with Erin’s mother and worked out a plan that was approved by the school’s Principal, Robert Sullivan, whereby Dan Green, the RYB teacher and AACT volunteer Bridge Coach, was approved to act as concierge for Erin during the period between her final class and the beginning of the after school bridge club. Hopefully, Erin’s sight is going to be restored in the near future but the temporary loss doesn’t prevent her from actively playing the game and in competition too. Seen here playing in a recent Member Guest tournament at the Reno Bridge Center, Erin’s eyes are provided by her mother, Susan, who whispers the specific cards in her hand and those on the board and she memorizes them so thereafter she can verbally select and call out her bids or which card to play at any specific trick. The game of bridge is fast becoming a challenging competitive sport played by more and more young people in WCSD after school activity classes. Reno Youth Bridge, with support from the American Contract Bridge League Education Foundation, and the United Way of Northern Nevada and The Sierra, provides all the playing equipment, teaching material and instructors for the eleven participating Middle Schools and High Schools. RYB also sponsors three major interscholastic tournaments each year, the next being the Spring Team Game Championships which will be held on April 27th at the John Ascuagas Nugget Hotel in Sparks, Nevada. At this event, bridge teams from AACT High School, Davidson Academy, Hillside Elementary and HDMS Charter school will join Billinghurst, Cold Springs, Depoali, O’Brien, Pine, Shaw and Sparks Middle Schools in competition to win possession of the RYB-WCSD “Silver Cup” perpetual Team Trophy. The game has fascinated many youngsters as it helps them learn critical thinking and inferential analysis, something that can’t be taught from text books. Playing bridge is a mental exercise that enhances academic proficiencies. Susan Davenport, a WCSD-RYB middle school teacher and coach of the Sparks MS Bridge team describes it as being “something like basketball for the brain without ever having to endure the pain of a sprained ankle”.

Reno Youth Bridge, Inc. is a Nevada non-profit corporation qualified as a tax exempt entity under section 501c.3 of the Internal Revenue Code. RYB was founded in 2008 and current directors are: Kathy Lane, President, Bud Brewer, Treasurer, Molly Rakestraw, Secretary, David Weinberg, VP, Dan Green, VP and John Barber, VP.

With this announcement, UWNNS allocated $429,000, to Grantees among which was- $12,000 to the Partnership between Reno Youth Bridge and Washoe County School District to enable Middle School and High School youth to participate in a program designed to enhance academic skills and increase students’ ability to reason and exercise critical thinking through a strenuous program to help them learn how to play and compete at Bridge, the most popular card game in the world.

In this process, UWNNS researched critical needs within its three areas of focus: education, financial stability and health. The organization then established regional needs with area volunteer experts to review research and determine focused priorities to guide decisions.

These same volunteers reviewed each of the partner agencies to ensure adherence to United Way’s Standards of Excellence. “Community volunteer councils put an even greater emphasis on partnerships and collaborations among our partner agencies,” said Karen Barsell, CEO and president of UWNNS. “These types of partnerships tackle those particular issues identified by the people who live in our community.”

Reno Youth Bridge and WCSD, working together in after school activity classes at the 14 middle schools and 12 high schools in the region, offer students the opportunity to engage in a “sport” that exercises the brain and reasoning abilities of the participants. In the spring of each year, Bridge teams representing each participating middle school in the District meet to determine which school will have the next year’s possession of the Reno Youth Bridge WCSD “Silver Cup”, a perpetual trophy awarded to the school whose bridge team wins the Championship. A second perpetual Trophy, the RYB-WCSD “Gold Cup”, is awarded to the High School whose Team wins the High School Team Championships.

UWNNS used a “when cash is in hand” philosophy as the cornerstone of sound fiscal strategy and the organization hopes that if additional donations are received in-house by June 30, further allocations may be possible.

The WCSD Spring Break has been a period when both students and teachers get an opportunity to rest up from serious classroom teaching and take part in vocational training or other activities programmed  to help them gear up for the final half of the Spring Semester.  This brief but welcome recess for teachers allows them to take special training and deal with administrative needs.  It also is a welcomed opportunity for students who are preparing  to compete in the Reno Youth Bridge Spring Team Game Championships scheduled for April 27th at the John Ascuagas Hotel in Sparks.  Each RYB Student will be assigned to an experienced bridge player who has volunteered to participate as a playing partner with one of the RYB school students.  This event is similar to those you read about in the paper that precede a major Golf Tournament when Amateurs are able to play a round of golf with a working professional.  Like those events, the Reno Youth Bridge Member Guest will provide great fun and valuable experience too.  In addition to earning master points, the students finishing high in the rankings at the tournament will receive RYBAP achievement points toward the winning of Merchant gift certificates at the end of the Semester.  The tournament will begin at 11:45 AM and conclude by 3:30 PM.  Some light snacks will be served during the game.  Reservations are required so pairings can be prepared.  Students are requested to advise their teacher of their plan to participate.

The event will begin at about 10:00 AM so Bud has asked that all participants arrive on BBO by 9:45 AM to allow time to set up and seat all the players.  It is expected to play 8 hands with International Match Point Scoring (IMPS). After each duplicated hand is played at both tables, the contract score made by each of the North South pairs will be aggregated with that of their East West Partners and the net difference converted to plus or minus IMPs. The Saturday team game is being provided to give middle school students the opportunity to play in a team format in preparation for their school’s entry into the Spring Team Game Championship Tournament scheduled for April 27th at the John Ascuagas Hotel in Sparks NV where they will be competing for the possession of the RYB-WCSD Silver Cup Team Game Perpetual Trophy.

Reno Youth Bridge Mid Winter Tournament
The rankings and master points awarded for the first four places overall and for the first and second place in each section are shown in the table. Master points are red points which are awarded when you play in Regional tournaments as this one was.

Bud Brewer                    20

May Smith                    50

Richard Baumgarten            60

Bridge is a partnership game so it offers the opportunity to advance social skills. The students shown here are concentrating as hard as they can to remember what card has been played and whether they will be able to make their contract. Simple math of keeping count, visualizing opponent’s holdings and making inferences from what they do or don’t do are just a part of what the bridge player has to deal with to be successful. Bridge, a trick taking game, was extremely popular in the early part of the last century with over 20 million young and old playing the game regularly. With the availability of television after World War II and the introduction of video games during the 1970-1990 years, bridge lost a generation of participants. Kathy Lane, President of Reno Youth Bridge and one of the Founding Directors of RYB says that the American Contract Bridge League Education Foundation has a well-structured learning program that is designed for volunteer teachers in our schools and does provide for a stipend to be paid to them to step up and begin recruiting and organizing after school activity classes teaching bridge to students interested in learning how to play the game. This Saturday the overall winners of the RYB-WCSD Mid-Winter Middle School Duplicate Bridge Tournament was the pair of Henry Weisberg and Mathew McKinley, members of the Billinghurst MS Bridge Team taught by Collett Gilmore and assisted by RYB Associate, Marge Quaglieri. Section winners included Mason Fisher and Mathew Longland from Sparks MS. In the Mini-Bridge section, East West winners were Arsh Bhardwaj and Smit Shah from Sparks MS and North South winners were Hayley Davis and Kat Kallas from High Desert Montessori Charter School. In the High school Division played as a Team Game, the team of Giovanney Zuninga, Joseph Magana, Brent Judy and Dylan Doraskar defeated a team from Davidson Academy made up of Sarah Mcharg, Jessica Fuchs, Tyler Hart and Jackson Hart. The next major interscholastic competition will be in the Spring Team game Championships to be held in late April. Click on photos to see enlargement.