The Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary is sponsoring a student chess club for students of the Windham, Garfield (and surrounding) school districts at the Renaissance Family Center. The Club meets on Wednesday at 4 p.m. over a 12-week period.
“I think it is a great game for teaching patience and strategy and I especially like that it is a physical board game,” G-H Rotary Member Jeff Drebus told The Weekly Villager on Oct. 10. “It is good for interaction between two people as well. In other words, it is something that is visceral, and you have the pieces and the board, and I think it is a good social interaction for the kids.”
The club is open to all students from grades 4 through 12 with retired James A. Garfield teacher Rich Teresi serving as the coach. The club is currently in its third week; at the end of the 12-week period, all participating members will compete in a tournament in early December with members of the Garrettsville Portage County Library Chess Club.
According to Drebus, who oversees the club, the G-H Rotary wanted to find new extracurricular activities for students at the Windham Renaissance Family Center. There were already many students playing basketball, but it was mostly comprised of older students, as the younger ones could not find time to get on the court.
Drebus noted that the G-H Rotary came across a news report of a chess club in Cleveland and they decided that having one for local students would be a great fit.
Drebus, who played chess frequently throughout his life since childhood, volunteered to oversee the club and enlisted Teresi, a retired schoolteacher who also had experience coaching Garfield athletics, including being an assistant football coach of the 1972 Portage County League championship team.
“That was really the thing that got this moving because he is a great teacher and a great coach. He is retired now, of course, but he put together a curriculum and he is just great with the kids,” Drebus said.
So far, the club only has three members, each one being under the age of 10, but Drebus said that word of mouth is spreading throughout the community of a new extracurricular club for students to join. In addition to the club slowly gaining recognition, Drebus said that each member of the club will receive a new chess set courtesy of the G-H Rotary to take home and practice with.
Although the club is small, Drebus said that the current members have already grasped the basics of the game of chess and credited Teresi for developing a teaching strategy that has captured their interest.
He said that during their first meetings, Teresi has taught the members the origins of chess plus some of the basic techniques. He added that Teresi has also created some fun games that have helped the members learn the game quickly.
“You start out with three or four pieces on each side, and you play, but he has found some games that are abbreviated but can teach the kids and it is fun,” Drebus said. “They are engaged and enjoying it. There are some interesting strategies that Rich is introducing to them, and the kids are picking up on it.”
Drebus also spoke highly of the impact that chess can have on a young child, drawing from his own personal experiences.
“It is one of those games you do not play for a couple of years and pick it back up again,” he said. “When my wife and I had kids of our own, we taught them how to play. They were in that 8-to-10 age bracket, we taught them how to play; even if they don’t play regularly, they could sit down and play a game at any time.”
While the G-H Rotary is sponsoring the club, Drebus also recognized the help of the Windham Renaissance Family Center for being open to providing a new extracurricular activity.
“We have a great partnership with them and as I said, we have done some other work with them too. We have gotten grants to build benches, we supplied some benches for their Garden Center, and we support them in any way we can,” he said.
Although the club currently only has a few members, Drebus said that it represents an exciting opportunity for students looking for new interests outside of school.
