Sacred Heart chess team rises against the odds to play for title
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Mar 02, 2010 08:41 EST
Lancaster
By JANE HOLAHAN, Staff Writer
Their game sets are clearance items from Kmart.
Their coach doesn’t really know how to play the game, so she can’t give them strategy lessons.
And the team is the youngest in the league.
But that hasn’t stopped eight students from Sacred Heart Parish School from becoming the toughest team to beat in the IU-13’s middle school Friendship Chess League.
On Wednesday, the team will be playing for the league’s championship.
“We’re playing against Centerville Middle School, the very first team we played,” said Erin Giordano, the team’s non-chess-playing coach, who teaches sixth grade at the small Catholic school on Nevin Street.
The final comes on the heels of a big win against undefeated Manheim Township Middle School last week.
On paper, this should not be happening.
None of the students has ever played competitive chess before.
“When we got an e-mail about the league from the IU in the fall, I thought it would be fun for the kids,” said Giordano. “I figured one of the parents would run it since I didn’t know how to play chess.”
Nope. Giordano is in charge.
So what’s their secret to success?
“My students call it the nursing and nurturing method,” said Giordano. “I can’t offer them strategies, so I feed them snacks. ‘Oh, you won? Have a cookie!’ They teach each other so much better than I could teach them.”
The kids are far younger than kids on the other nine teams.
Here is the full article.
Nice to hear about some local chess activity. I would advise these kids to check out the Lancaster Chess Club, currently meeting at the Lancaster Recreation Center Wed. at 6:30. It’s likely they could get some instruction there.