Two youth teams were in the field on Friday night July 9, 2010. The kids ranged in age from 9 to 20. All were former students of Kathy Rolfe, who gave them a special coaching session a few days before the tournament on how to play and score at team games. One team was Michael Lakner and Tyler Braden, rising 8th and 9th graders, sitting North-South and their East-West partners were Michael and Patrick, rising 5th and 6th graders. On the other team were Sara and Kate, rising 5th and 7th graders, sitting North-South, with teammates Trevor Houston, 2nd year college student, and Austin Buchanan, rising 9th grader, sitting East-West. They learned a lot and had fun talking to a lot of other bridge players. Michael Lakner also had some caddy training by watching the caddies at work. This was important because he was a new caddy the next day. He was even able to play with John Glagola, caddy master, as his partner to fill in the Saturday evening side game, which made him a very happy caddy—paid to work but getting to play for free at the same time! What a deal! I heard about his double of 4S for a plus 800 from his partner that evening and from his opponents the next day. Tyler Braden and Michael Lakner could also be found playing in the pair game Friday afternoon as well. I think we have a whole new generation getting hooked!
Fred Dahlquist,age 102, and his son Bill, sat down to play North-South at their local social duplicate club on Saturday July 17 at noon at John Knox Village. Sitting West was Michael Lakner, age 13, and his partner and bridge teacher, Kathy Rolfe, was sitting East. The first board was 3NT by North (Bill) for down 1. The next board was also 3NT by South (Fred) this time for down 2. The third and last board of the round was also 3NT! This time however played by East (Kathy), making 7! Fred is shown here trying to figure out how that happened! Michael and Kathy finished the day with a 72.78% game which was only 2nd!
“Come and see this!” I was told repeatedly as various players at the Columbia Mid-MO sectional tournament saw the 4 very young bridge players in the pairs game. I had to smile and say, “Yes, I know! They’re my students!” The four players, Kate, Michael, Sara, and Patrick, (seen in the picture here from left to right), were from a home
school group that I taught beginning bridge to this past spring. They range in age from 9 to 11 and are siblings and cousins. Kate and Patrick finished first in the student scholarship section at the April sectional in Kansas City. In the 10 a.m. June 4, 2010 session they mixed it up with, Kate and Michael playing together, sitting North-South, and Sara and Patrick sitting East-West,starting at the same table. Their Aunt Aletia drove them to Columbia just to play in the game. Aletia plays bridge too but opted to watch instead of finding a partner and playing herself. In fact most of their family plays – a total of 5 aunts, 2 grandparents, and 3 other siblings/cousins play the game that I know of, as I’ve also given them lessons! The kids did not place but they had some very good boards and they had a lot of fun, enjoying the great hospitality and talking to the other players. They are looking forward to playing in a game or two at the summer sectional tournament as well.
Michael (Mickey) Creech, Jr., senior from Lee's Summit West High School (LSWHS), received the second Kathy Rolfe Bridge Scholarship at the Academic Achievement Awards Assembly at LSWHS on May 6, 2010. This is a $500 renewable scholarship made available from the Eugene J. Rolfe Memorial Education Fund administered by the Truman Heartland Community Foundation. To renew the scholarship Mickey will have to maintain a B average or better in his post-secondary education, keep his ACBL membership current, and continue to earn masterpoints. Mickey also received the Eugene J. Rolfe Memorial scholarship, a $1000 renewable scholarship which is given to a graduating senior with a musical background who is going on to major in engineering in college. Mickey will be using both of these scholarships to major in aerospace engineering at Purdue University.
Mickey was a 4th grader in the ASPIRE class of Mrs. Stacia Garland at Cedar Creek Elementary, the 4th bridge class I taught during my first year of teaching bridge in 2002. He has pursued playing bridge with a passion, playing in the annual Instant Matchpoint Competitions, playing at local clubs as well as various sectional and regional tournaments. He has played social bridge as well.
Congratulations Mickey!
The 2010 student bridge scholarship competition was held as a part of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Unit 131 Sectional Tournament held at the firefighters Hall at 6320 Manchester Avenue in Kansas City on Friday, April 23. This is the fourth year the unit has sponsored this event. Unit 131 paid to bus the students from the Lee’s Summit School District so that they could play in the sectional; they could see what it was like as the adults played in another section of the tournament, starting just 1 hour after the kids; and perhaps most importantly the adults could see them play and encourage them to continue.
There were 17 tables of four students each, ranging from 4th grade through 12th grade, in play. All were either current or former students of Kathy Rolfe who has been teaching bridge in various school settings but primarily within the Lee’s Summit School District since 2002. She has taught primarily in the ASPIRE (4th-6th grade gifted and talented) classes. 12 boards in a standard Mitchell movement were played. The session was directed by Kathy Rolfe and by ACBL tournament director Chris Patrias, who was also busy running the adult sections of bridge.
At the end of the afternoon the top North-South pair and the top East-West pair won not only their silver masterpoints, but also a trophy provided by Unit 131, and each player also received a $50 scholarship to be used for their post-secondary education. The scholarship is funded from the Eugene J. Rolfe Memorial Education Fund administered by the Truman Heartland Community Foundation. In addition to the top places, twelve other pairs also played well enough to earn silver masterpoints.
Forty-three of the students joined ACBL this year and four of the students had previously joined ACBL when they played in previous Scholarship Tournaments. This is important because it is one step they need to take in order to be eligible to win an additional scholarship given to a graduating senior. Any graduating senior who has the required 3.0 grade point average, is a member of ACBL, has at least 1 masterpoint, and is a former student of Kathy Rolfe is eligible to win a $500 scholarship which in turn is renewable for another 3 years if the student maintains their GPA and continues to add to their masterpoints each year while retaining ACBL membership.
The winners of this year’s competition were: East-West: Patrick and Kate, 5th and 6th graders from the Seton Home School Group and North-South: Michael Lakner and Tyler Braden 7th and 8th graders from Pleasant Lea Middle School. Patrick and Kate each received 1.13 silver masterpoints for their 1st place overall with a 69.43% game. Michael and Tyler each received .85 silver masterpoints for their first N/S and 2nd overall with a 66.2% game. Most of the players were from 10 schools in Lee’s Summit: Sunset Valley, Underwood, Cedar Creek, Summit Pointe, Mason, Trailridge, and Greenwood Elementary Schools, Pleasant Lea Middle School, Summit Lakes Middle School, and Lee’s Summit West High School. There were 4 players from the Seton Home School Group, and 4 players from Ruskin High School. Every school at the tournament had players earning masterpoints. All players earning masterpoints (mps) are listed here along with their grade level and school.
Patrick / Kate 1.13 mps 5th / 6th gr. Seton Home School
Michael Lakner / Tyler Braden .85 mps 7th / 8th gr. Pleasant Lea M.S.
Brady Hemmel / Evan Schoenherr .64 mps 6th grade Underwood Elem.
(Tyler Charles)/Michaela Thomson / Alicia Cotto .48 mps 6th grade Sunset Valley Elem.
Sky Masters / Jessi Kuse .36 mps 5th / 6th gr. Trailridge Elem.
Connor Schott / Lucas Hall .28 mps 6th grade Mason Elem.
Andrew Ruth / C. Paul Williams .27 mps 11th grade Ruskin High School
Chris Ballowe / Khaheem Coley .27 mps 11th / 12th gr. Ruskin High School
Austin Buchanan / Brittany James .20 mps 8th gr./ 9th gr. Summit Lakes M.S./LSWHS
Adam Moore / Cole Huff .20 mps 6th grade Summit Pointe Elem.
Mary Clare/ Amy Hodson .19 mps 6th / 5th gr Greenwood Elem.
Kyle Greenwald / Daniel Valmassi .19 mps 4th / 5th gr. Underwood / Mason
Jacob Schnitzlein / Alex Geoghegan .14 mps 5th / 4th gr Trailridge Elem.
Jackson Pietig / Gavin .14 mps 6th grade Cedar Creek Elem.
