Sat Feb 6:
Congratulations again to the LDMS chess team, the Knights of LDMS, who took first place in BOTH the K-5 and K-8 divisions at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Port Washington. Our K-5 team of Brian Schroeder, Kolt Otterbacher, Brady Megal and Zeke Baker edged out the tough Golda Meir team, and our K-8 team of Reid and Evan Seghers, Chris Tillson and Jacob Glumm dominated what turned out to be a K-12 field by scoring 22 out of a possible 24 points.
Here is a link to the full results: http://www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org/websource/web/results/2009-02-07-tjms-results.pdf
In the K-5 division, Brian trophied at 3rd place, tied with 4.5 wins with Kolt and also with Jorin McGuire, a former Mill Valley teammate. In K-8, LDMS took 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th place. A special congratulations to two of our newcomers- Zeke Baker, who has improved each tournament and got 3 wins for the first time, and Jacob Glumm who took 5 wins!
Sat Jan 30:
Last week, LDMS also dominated at the Youth Leadership Academy in Milwaukee. Another three first place finishes! At the Youth Leadership Academy in Milwaukee, the LDMS Knights took first place in the Open Division, and second place in K-6. Evan Seghers and Reid Seghers each took first place trophies in those divisions. Chris Tillson took home a third place trophy in K-6. Also participating for the Knights this week were Jacob Glumm, Kolt Otterbacher, and Zeke Baker. Everybody contributed to the victories!!!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
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2 comments:
It's very impressive that LD K-8 boys could dominate a section that had an average rating of 463, excluding the three LD players. Perhaps they should have competed in the Open and allowed the host team to win some trophies in K-8.
Thank you for your comment, Mr. Anonymous.
My email is seghers@gmail.com if you would like to talk about this openly. I see no reason why you would want to be anonymous, unless you're just bitter and want to slam a successful chess program.
We had eight kids who wanted to play chess this weekend. I put four of them in K-5, and the best we did there individually was third place. We took 1st as a team because each kid did pretty well, including newcomer Zeke. We won by only 1 point in that division over Golda Meir.
In the K-8 division, we had three 5th graders and an 8th grader. Jacob Glumm, the 8th grader, is brand new to the game this year. I didnt want to put Jacob in Open yet. And I looked at the pre-registration and there were a bunch of kids in K-8, and only a few in Open. I didnt want to have four out of the six kids in the open division be LDMS- I wanted us to mix it up and not play each other.
Anyway, ultimately this is a moot point since K-8 and open were combined and we ended up playing against them anyway.
Finally, I completely disagree with your point that letting the host team, or any team, win should be a part of my decision as a coach.
According to your logic, I guess I had two choices- 1) tell the parents "there is no tournament this weekend", or 2) put four kids in a near-empty Open section, and let them be happy taking 1st place through 4th place out of a field of 6 or 8 kids.
I believe in celebrating success. It's what has made these kids great- many of them starting as 3rd graders under Mr. Reese, who taught me several methods to teach kids how to play. Our success as a team is largely due to him, and taking it back further, to Mr. Bubolz, who worked with Mr. Reese previously in New Berlin. Chess keeps giving... or at least it should.. if people communicate openly and are willing to learn from each other.
When our kids do lose, we try to teach them to be good sports. If I were on another team's blog (and I wish more teams had them) who beat our team, I would be congratulating them and would be asking them how they had gotten so good, not second-guessing their sportsmanship for not letting another team win some trophies. For trophies to mean something, they should be earned. Our kids have worked HARD to get where they have gotten, including practicing hard at home, and including their parents who give up their free time to help them attend tournaments. One would think you might thank us for supporting Wisconsin chess, not condemning us for choosing the "wrong" division.
Again, Mr. Anonymous, we appreciate your comment, and I would welcome an open discussion if and when you are willing.
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