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Friends start chess club at Portal
By Trenton Albers
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| Brogan Andrews, right, contemplates his next move against Jared Weyrauch. |
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During an indoor recess on a cold January day, sixth-graders Jeremy Sokoloski and Seth Hawkins were playing a game of chess and the idea started as simply as that.
“We said ‘I wish we had a chess club in this school. That would be fun,’” Hawkins said.
According to Hawkins, Sokoloski looked back at him and said, “We could start one.”
The two boys then went into action and after discussing the idea further enlisted the help of fellow classmates Nathan Tibbetts and Zack Hastings.
“They sort of came to me for help,” Tibbetts said. “They thought of me as a good public speaker to introduce it at a (school) assembly.”
After receiving the go-ahead from sixth-grade teacher and now club sponsor Tammy Springer, Tibbetts presented their chess club idea at a school assembly in hopes of recruiting other students to the activity.
Springer said she is proud of her students for taking the initiative to form the club.
“The students just came to me saying they wanted to start a (chess) club as a great way to make friends and get involved with their school,” Springer said. “They completely did everything on their own.”
Now, the four friends set up weekly meetings and tournaments, held every Thursday after school, of which their fellow classmates can freely be a part. The group has been well received and sees about 15 students participate each week.
On top of just playing chess, the club teaches its members how to better their personal games.
“We teach players new strategies every two weeks or so to improve their strategies,” Hastings said.
The four students all agree they’ve seen great improvements in the chess games of their members.
“I’ve seen everyone improve a lot,” Hawkins said.
He said the club’s latest tournament has been evidence of those improvements as players really had to battle to take each other’s pieces.
And who is the best player in the chess club?
The four group leaders pointed to classmate Jared Weyrauch who has yet to be defeated during the club’s three-month existence.
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