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Dayton Boys Prep Academy teacher Gregory Powell says, “In addition to conventional extracurricular activities, our boys have been introduced to golf, chess and the stock market.”
The boys’ chess instruction certainly paid off in this year’s Dayton Public Schools’ chess and checkers intramural tournament last month, and principal Horace Lovelace would like to start a chess club at the school.
“They wiped everybody up in fourth and fifth grade chess,” said Keith Cosby, coordinator of DPS intramurals. Of eight places in fourth, fifth and sixth grade, the DBPA took nine places in fourth and fifth grade, with no winners in sixth grade.
Powell, a math and science teacher at the school, as well as intramural leader, said that he had assistance for this year’s challenge. “I asked for chess enthusiasts to help prepare our players for the recent tournament, and we were fortunate to have Andrew Woods, a WSU student teacher, and Steven Mills, a kindergarten teacher here at DBPA, help out.
“They worked with the young men during lunch time and after school almost every day. Mr. Mills introduced our boys to a strategy that enabled them to checkmate opponents in some cases in just two to three moves. This stunned the audiences and carried the fifth-graders to a near clean sweep of the competition.”
Cosby, a long-time physical education teacher in Dayton, said that the fourth through sixth grade chess and checkers competition has been part of the intramurals “as long as I can remember. We had 23 schools participating this year. Three schools couldn’t find someone to run it.”
Although physical education teachers often serve as coaches, other staff do the coaching as well, since intramurals involve activities not always conducive to a class setting.
“Teachers may work with students in small groups at lunch or after school,” he said. For the chess competition, “A lot of coaches work with strategies, and have students go online and play so they’re ready when they come to the tournament.”
The district recognized the top eight winners in each age group.
The top three places in chess for fourth grade were:
1st - Mitchell Lazarow, River’s Edge; 2nd - Dale Jones, Dayton Boys Prep; 3rd - Josh Hummons, Valerie.
In the fifth grade competition, winners were:
1st - Chevas Horne, Dayton Boys Prep; 2nd - Bianco Wilcoxson, Dayton Boys Prep; 3rd - Gregory Combs, Ruskin.
Sixth grade winners were:
1st - Brandon Moe, River’s Edge; 2nd - Joshua Steinbrugge, Eastmont; 3rd - William Nichols, Edison.
In checkers, the top three winners in the fourth grade division were:
1st -Brandon Wyatt, Eastmont; 2nd - John Hayes, Edison; 3rd - Isaiah Frazier, Dayton Boys Prep. Fifth grade winners: 1st - Del Jackson, Kiser; 2nd - Donnie Fisher, Orville Wright; 3rd - Ma’kiyah Porter, Valerie.
Sixth grade top three were:
1st - Nottia Ward, Meadowdale; 2nd - Michelle Keck, WOW; 3rd - Aereonna Rayford, Valerie.
Contact this columnist at virgburroughs@gmail.com.
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