Boysen and Fairley take 1st places at Tourney!

Congrats to Samuel and Paul as they won their divisions in the Scrabble Tourney at school over the weekend. Cameron Webb and Jonah Ginn were runners up.  Overall, we had 14 players show up, with 6 in the upper division and 8 playing in the lower division. Only three games were played and Paul was the only player to go undefeated. Photos from the action are below.

Great Start to the Season!!

We had 24 teams start the 2012 season this morning and with a couple of practice games under their belts, the teams were eager to try and start with a win. Many great plays were to be found. Houston Harding and Mark Conlee hooked a Y to MEAT and also formed FISHY on the triple letter word for a solid 54 points. I did see a plethora of phony 2 and 3 letter words on almost every board.  This is because not all the teams have learned their twos and threes. When this happens over the next couple of weeks, there will be a huge reduction in phonies and a boost in overall play. The next meeting is Monday for all teams (6th, 7th and 8th graders are expected to be there!) Be there no later than 6:55.  The ratings are posted below.

ALL THE KIDS NEED TO KNOW THEIR TWO LETTER WORDS TOMORROW AT
LUNCH. THEY WILL MEET IN MY ROOM AND WRITE THEM DOWN ALPHABETICALLY FROM MEMORY. I HAVE NEVER HAD A KID FAIL TO DO ON THE FIRST TRY IN 11 YEARS.


Please make every effort to have this done tomorrow.

Thanks!

Coach Porter

Here are some pics from today's action

 

Scrabble Rankings as of 9/27/12
Rank	Team	W	L	T	PPG	Turns	PPT	Bingos	Bingos Last Game
1	Houston Harding/Mark Conlee	1	0	0	209	10	20.9	0	none
2	Samuel Boysen/Cameron Webb	1	0	0	350	17	20.6	0	none
3	Sam Reddick/Andrew Crowell	1	0	0	267	13	20.5	0	none
4	Brice Boyer/Will Stolnicki	1	0	0	234	12	19.5	0	none
5	Andrew Johnson/Marshall Daniel	1	0	0	351	21	16.7	0	none
6	Bayley Smith/Summer Threadgill	1	0	0	132	9	14.7	0	none
7	Josh Rooker/Ryan Bray	1	0	0	248	17	14.6	0	none
8	Riley Watkins/Molly Martin	1	0	0	207	16	12.9	0	none
9	Caleb Tonkel/Nick Smithers	1	0	0	114	9	12.7	0	none
10	Jacob Hewitt/Seth Nicely	1	0	0	165	14	11.8	0	none
11	Mic Wilkins/Sumner Darlington	1	0	0	138	14	9.86	0	none
12	Ali Romines/Haddi Betapudi	1	0	0	98	11	8.91	0	none
13	Bella Horrocks/Ellie Kate Forrester	0	1	0	125	9	13.9	0	none
14	Jack Horton/Jacob Epperson	0	1	0	165	13	12.7	0	none
15	Bailey Lipe/Rachel Kriger	0	1	0	165	13	12.7	0	none
16	Cy Leffingwell/Robert Butler	0	1	0	197	18	10.9	0	none
17	Paul Fairley/Preston Brady	0	1	0	106	10	10.6	0	none
18	Jason Lyle/Jonah Ginn	0	1	0	170	17	10	0	none
19	Clayton Brown/Kenton Harvill	0	1	0	132	14	9.43	0	none
20	LaCario Alexander/Josh Crowell	0	1	0	102	11	9.27	0	none
21	James Dale/Colin Jones	0	1	0	141	17	8.29	0	none
22	Will Harding/Nelson Wilford	0	1	0	72	11	6.55	0	none
23	Brooks Lynn/Cole Jackson	0	1	0	98	15	6.53	0	none
24	Ray Hughes/Gibson Steed	0	1	0	126	21	6	0	none
	Averages				171	13.8	12.5	0

Another Big Crowd in Week 2!

We had 47 kids show today for our second session of Scrabble Club!  The action was a little better today and we even had our first 7 letter "bingo" play.  The team of Sam Reddick and Andrew Crowell was able to play RERATED for 64 points!  I have a feeling this is not going to be their last! 

In another game, Coach Porter played Samuel Boysen and Cameron Webb and the students did very well staying withing 89 points in losing 408-319. Not a bad showing against the Zen Scrabble Master by the two 7th grade upstarts!

The high student game of the day was 385 points by Andrew Johnson and Marshall Daniel.  That is current high score so far in the club. The high scoring games and high scoring plays will be listed from now on to the right on the blog. Congrats guys!! That is s big number for not having any bingos!

Don't forget to sign up to get in the Cash Tournament a week from Saturday. The sign-up sheet is to the left of Coach Rose's door. Also, be working on studying your 2 letter words for your two letter word quiz on Monday. You will not be allowed to start the season next Thursday until you have passed the quiz! 

THE SCRABBLE REGULAR SEASON STARTS NEXT THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a picture from today's action, a the board from the game of Cole Jackson vs Kenton Harvill

Phonies on the board!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (just so you know...)

FUP    GOUL     GA     YAU       JORT       TARD       KAI

THESE ARE NOT WORDS PEOPLE!!!

First Club Tournament Will be Saturday, September 29th!

Saturday, September 29th, we will have our first official Scrabble tournament.

Where? 

Mr. Worley's Room

What time?  

10:30-2:30

How many games? 

Each team will play five games. 

What are the prizes? 

First place team splits $100, second place splits $60, third place splits $30

Is that all? 

NO. There will also be 10 dollar prizes to be split for highest scoring bingo, highest scoring non-bingo, highest scoring total in a loss, and most creative play. 

Will lunch be provided? 

Yes, we will have Papa John's Pizza included. 

Is there an entry fee? 

Yes, each player must pay 10 dollars to participate. This will help pay for lunch,        

snacks and drinks as well as go towards the prize money. Please pay Coach Porter by Wednesday, Sept. 26 to reserve your spot. The tournament will be limited to the first 20 teams that sign up and pay their fee.  Sign up sheet will be on the wall by Coach Rose's door. 

42 people at the first official 7th and 8th Scrabble Club meeting!!!

The science lab could hardly hold everyone as 42 middle schoolers packed the room and 11 games were going at once. It was a great way to start the Club! Everyone was still learning most of the basics but it became apparent as the morning progressed that many were getting the hang of it.  Those new to the game were showing a lot of enthusiasm and picking things up quick. There were no bingos played today (50 point bonus words using all their tiles) but there certainly will be some soon. Some of the plays were quite impressive with several newly learned words showing up on various boards around the room. REDRILLING was a rare 10 letter word that stretched over halfway across one board. Other nice words seen were QUEYS, BIZ, and QUAG.

At lunch, over 35 members showed up for Scrabble lunch and pizza was devoured as everyone learned more about basic rules and procedures. Only two more weeks until we officially start the 16 game regular season! The top 10 teams out of 28 registered teams will qualify for the 8 game playoffs, with the top 4 from the playoff teams advancing to the National Championship in Orlando in the Spring to play for the $10,000 dollar grand prize. Don't forget that ECS has made it to the championship 3 out of the 5 times they have attended. So our best teams always are contenders. So it will be a race to see who can learn the most words as well as the secret strategies of the pros to score 400 and even 500 per game.

Here are a pics from today's action!

Your first contest!!!

At the bottom of the blog, you will see a picture of a game in progress.

Be the first to post the word and the coordinates (Like A-4 Across or 6-F Down) for where the word would go in the comments section of this post.

The winner gets his or her choice of Skittles or M&M's!

Congrats to Samuel boysen, who actually found QUAI at 12A down, for 49 Points and took home the prize!

IMPORTANT!! PLEASE READ!!

Welcome to the new website for the ECS Scrabble Club. Make this a favorite or bookmark so you can get to it easily!  I will be putting all kinds of information up here such as morning meeting dates, Scrabble Lunch dates, school tournament information, weekly team rankings and all kind of useful material. It will be updated weekly, if not daily. It will also be linked from the school website. You need to officially "follow" this blog so you can make comments or ask questions after posts. I will try to answer them or respond quickly. Also there are helpful links at the bottom to help you get better at Scrabble quickly. The quicker you start learning and playing, the better chance you will love it and excel.

I wanted to first make sure that all the 7th and 8th graders know that they would be meeting on this Friday, 9/14 at 6:55 because of Late Start Wednesday and we will meet in Mrs. Maxwell's room from now on. Her room can hold a lot of people. 6th graders will meet on Mondays for now at 6:55 in the same room from now on.

Make sure you are memorizing the two letter words. On this Friday at Scrabble Lunch, I am going to have everybody (6th-8th) write them down from memory. You simply must know them to play the game correctly. Just start from the top...AA, AB, AD, AE, AG, etc, etc.. until you get to ZA. You already know more than half of them which leaves about 40-50. It takes about 30 minutes at the longest to learn them and some will learn them in as little as 10 minutes.

In two weeks we are going to start the actual regular season in which every game counts and records will be kept so you need to make sure you have a partner soon! Recruit someone to be your partner if you don't have one. Or find someone who is looking for a partner at Scrabble Lunch.

Scrabble Lunch will be for all 6th-8th graders from now on every Friday. Everyone is encouraged to come but not required to. There will be pizza available for 1 dollar per slice.  You need to pay Coach Porter in advance outside at activity period.  There will be a sheet to indicate how many slices you bought and whether cheese, pepperoni, or sausage.  This will help make sure we get the right amount. Soft drinks will be included with the pizza for no extra charge. If you don't want to eat pizza, you need to sack your own lunch as there will not be time to go to the cafeteria.  We will always meet in Coach Teed's room.

Also, everyone needs to make an ISC account (Internet Scrabble Club). The link for the site is on the right on the blog. Just download it for Mac or Windows and then you can post what your username, or "handle" as it is called on ISC on the blog under comments. Then you can start playing each other.

Also, there is a link to purchase a great book that can be used to quickly amass an awesome Scrabble vocabulary that will overwhelm your opponent. I highly recommend purchasing it if you are wanting to get good.

Lastly, I am going to start having crash course tutoring session for those that want to get better fast from 3:00-4:00 on Thursdays in Coach Rose's room. I can almost assure you that those that attend this session will quickly start dominating the game within a month. The students that learn the strategies fastest are the ones that usually are in the hunt to go to the National Tournament and compete for the 10, 000 dollar grand prize.  I am only asking those that come to pay a small 5 dollar fee per session, which in turn will be used to purchase more Scrabble equipment for our growing club. (50 people currently are active in the club in middle school)

This will be a fun year and for many, this club will become one of the highlights of your school week!  I want to use this blog as the main communication tool for everything Scrabble.  So check in often! I will have candy contests on this blog to see who can find the best play on Scrabble images I post here so don't let someone beat you to the best play!!!

Coach Porter