AGazine, December 2014

News and Notes

The AGLOA Board of Directors and Tournament Council have sent the invitation and cost/registration information to league directors for the 50th Anniversary National Academic Games Tournament April 24-27, 2015, at the Doubletree by Hilton in Orlando FL across from Universal Studios.

Deadlines that leagues must meet are as follows.

Events across the AGLOA leagues during the next month:

To see all of our of upcoming events, visit our Calendar page. If your league’s events are not listed, please send us your schedule.

Outstanding Senior: Jessica Stone

The 2014 Academic Games National Tournament was the seventh in a row for Jessica Stone of Suncoast High, Palm Beach County FL. Here is what the coaches from Palm Beach County, led by Ellen Bredeweg and Ken Dowling, wrote about Jessica in nominating her for an Outstanding Senior Award.

Jessica overcame a very difficult home situation and managed to excel in her academic subjects at school. It was in Academic Games, however, where she really came into her own. No matter what was happening in her home life, she could feel safe and appreciated when she was competing. In her 6th and 7th grade years, her mother refused to sign her permission slip for the Nationals trip until just before we were to leave. Even under those circumstances, Jessica never gave up hope and continued to study and prepare with indomitable optimism and, in 7th grade, came home from Nationals with many awards because she was able to persevere when others would have given up. Her middle school principal stated that she has never met a more outstanding student and that the one thing that impressed her most about Jessica was her drive to achieve her goals. “She could be president if she set her mind to it!”

Jessica helped organize and coach the members of her high school teams in the math, language arts, and social studies local tournaments. Last year, she organized a phone text practice which was sent out to all the players after they returned from Nationals. The texts contained Ling and Equations challenges. In addition, Jessica came back to her middle school for several years to give pointers (especially in Ling). At practices for Nationals, she took a leadership role in working with both the middle and high school players. Even at the national tournament where she is a competitor, she continued to coach and practice with the elementary and middle school players. The high school players nicknamed her “Ling Queen.”

Ellen Bredeweg, Jessica Stone, and Ken Dowling

Outstanding Educator: Sharon Witte

Elaine Chauvin and Sharon Witte

Few people beyond her own Jefferson Parish coaches and students know Sharon Witte. That’s because she spends most of her time at Nationals in the scoring room where she has toiled behind the scenes quietly and efficiently for years. She has performed the same service for her local league as well. Yet she is an outstanding coach of Equations, On-Sets, LinguiSHTIK, and Propaganda in Elementary Division, or she wouldn’t be at Nationals with her students.

Here are excerpts from what her students wrote in nominating her.

There is a huge growth from the beginning of the year to “Nationals time.” For example, many of the team members that Mrs. Witte has coached have continued on beyond Elementary and have won many medals.

For her team, along with Academic Games, she wears a t-shirt. She is also a judge during tournaments. She tries her hardest to make sure that everyone, not just her team, does the best they can.

Mrs. Witte puts forth major effort to coach her team. She wants to open new opportunities for people. Mrs. Witte is 100% dedicated. The Gretna No. 2 Academic Games Team thinks knows she is the best coach!

Down Memory Lane

Do you know what a “Blunderer” is or a “Rectifier” – not in general but as applied to Equations and On-Sets? In the early years of Equations and On-Sets, a Blunder was what is today called an “Illegal Procedure.” The Rectifier was the opponent who correctly pointed out the Blunder. The 1968-69 Tournament Rules included the following.

BLUNDER Scoring Rule

Some of the added rules [Adventurous Variations] may be violated by a player’s move. This is called a BLUNDER. A BLUNDER is a move that does not conform to one or a combination of the new rules added in an ADVENTUROUS VARIATIONS game but is not a FLUB [move that can be challenged].

If a player thinks that the Mover has BLUNDERED, he can charge the Mover with BLUNDERING by saying, "BLUNDER". A BLUNDER-charge, like a challenge, can be made by any player at any time and not merely on his turn to play. The player making the charge then puts the cube(s) moved back into RESOURCES and makes a different move to RECTIFY the BLUNDER. This RECTIFYING move is open to the charge of being a BLUNDER or to challenge as a FLUB; and the challenge, if made, will be evaluated by the usual procedures for evaluating the validity of challenges. (If there is a challenge, it is directed at the RECTIFIER.)

A BLUNDER is completely insulated by a subsequent move; in other words, if a BLUNDER is not RECTIFIED immediately, it can never be RECTIFIED. After RECTIFICATION of a BLUNDER, it is the turn of the player who would ordinarily play next had the move not been a BLUNDER. If the original move was indeed a BLUNDER, then the RECTIFIER’s move stands, and the BLUNDERER loses one point. If there was no BLUNDER so that the charge was erroneous, then the cubes are replaced as originally moved and the RECTIFIER loses one point.