Over 1,000 coaches, parents, and players enjoyed an incredible weekend in Atlanta, Georgia, at the 2016 Academic Games National Tournament (the 51st), April 22-25. The location was nearly perfect. When players or teams had time between matches, they could easily walk to the world-class Atlanta Aquarium or the World of Coke. The beautiful Marriott Marquis Hotel (46 floors high) provided a breathtaking venue, which easily han­dled all our playing, meeting, eating, and sleeping needs. It was spectacular and the hotel hosts treated us very well.

As always, about 800 players in four Divisions (Elemen­tary, Middle, Junior, and Senior) competed in seven ex­citing tournaments --  EQUATIONS and ON-SETS for Mathematics; PROPAGANDA and LINGUISHTIK for Lan­guage Arts; PRESIDENTS and World Events for Social Studies; and WFF’N PROOF for Logic. Not all players or teams played all seven games, but each Tournament was highly competitive. Players demonstrated their knowledge and skills of complicated mathematics, cre­ative sentence construction, understanding of tech­niques of persuasion, intricate information about the lives and political dealings of all 44 U.S. presidents, exceptional knowledge of what happened in the U.S. Civil War of the 1860’s, plus knowledge of what hap­pened in the world in year 2015.

Winners were crowned and honored; every player rose to the occasion with academic skills seldom seen from people of their ages and grade levels. Players also learned to handle victories with grace and defeats with a sense of commitment that they would study harder and do better in the future. New friend­ships were formed and old ones renewed. Players ex­hibited intel­lectual excellence, person integrity, and new-found character. All coaches and parents were immensely proud of their players.

An enormous number of coaches, parents, and other adults volunteered in helping to judge, monitor, read, and otherwise assist to make the multi-ring events go off smoothly. Over 120 of these individuals were thanked from the heart and tangibly by the Academic Games Leagues of America.

Everyone is looking forward to the 2017 Tournament in Wheeling, West Virginia, at the Oglebay Resort, April 28 to May 1