The Junior High Team Championships landed in a new building on the University of Michigan medical campus, the Palmer Commons. While the building was nice, the tournament was split onto multiple floors, and much of the skittles space was on yet another floor. I handled the main directing duties with the help of Keith Councell, Norman Browne, Martin Moore, and Eric Choate. For the first time, a Reserve section was held that was open to unrated teams and teams that had an average rating less than 700. This split allowed for more even matches from round one and allowed the top several teams to meet each other in the last couple rounds. The 60 combined teams points to the likelihood that the tournament may have plateaued, with 62 teams in 2003 and 61 in 2004.

Michigan Junior High (K-9) Team Championship

There were 33 teams competing for the overall Junior High Team Championship. There were no upset victories in round one last year, but things were different this year. With only 16 tables, we saw four upsets, starting with table four as the Spring Lake Bishops team squeaked by Detroit Edison 1. The two unrated teams in this section, both from Detroit Duffield, scored in round one.

In round two, Detroit Duffield B scored the only upset over Okemos Chippewa from the top group. Byron held their higher-rated opponent to a draw. Unrated Detroit Duffield A also held the Spring Lake Kings to a draw.

Going into round three, the perfect scores had already been whittled down to six, with another six a half-point behind. On table one, Detroit Bates A only managed to draw against Detroit Robeson 1. Okemos Kinawa A and Monroe HS A moved forward with relatively easy victories.

The last battle of perfect scores came on table one in round four, as Okemos Kinawa A met Monroe HS A. Monroe HS A held onto the two and a half to one and a half victory when Katrina Snyder was able to hold a king and pawn versus king ending. On boards two and three, Detroit Bates A and Detroit Robeson 1, respectively, kept pace by reaching three and a half points.

Now, all that stands between Monroe and another state championship was the number one seed Detroit Bates A squad. But, Bates was up for the task as they scored victories on the top three boards. Okemos Kinawa A downed Detroit Robeson 1 to prevent Robeson from grabbing a share of the state championship.

Detroit Bates A is the 2005 Junior High State Champions with a balanced attack. Their top three boards, James Canty III, Ibrahim Haugabook, and Dalton Barksdale each scored four points.

Four-point team second place Okemos Kinawa A was led by their third board, Vu Hoang, scoring four and a half. Also, medaling for Kinawa was Justin Brereton and Matthew Hempel at four points. In third, Monroe HS A had a couple of four-pointers in Ashley Carter and Christian Murphy. Katrina Snyder took bronze. Detroit McNair A quietly scored four points to take fourth place. They were led by fourth board gold medalist, Kendall Jones and silver medalist, Devon Easterling, on board two.

Among the three and a half point teams, Detroit Robeson 1 had Jonathan Evans as a gold medalist. A special note about first board Robert Hughes (1212) is that he faced three B-players on his way to a silver medal. The unrated Detroit Duffield A team finished sixth with fourth board Tramayne Coody as a gold medal winner and second board Maurice Jenkins earning a silver. The Spring Lake Kings team took seventh led by Jonathan Budzenski at four and a half and David Lowing at four. The freshmen from Flint Kearsley won their last three matches to reach three and a half. Two players earned bronze, Anthony Bradshaw and Jordan Rathburn.

There were three first board players with perfect scores for teams that did trophy, Charlie Miller from Grand Blanc A, Neal Anderson from Haslet, and Robert Taliaferro II from Detroit Edison 1.

Michigan Junior High (K-9) Team Reserve

The very first Reserve section of the Junior High Team tournament came off like a bang as 27 teams played in this section. Unrated teams and teams with an average rating less than 700 were eligible.

In round one, we saw that the tournament was filled with teams that were very closely matched. There were four drawn matches right off the bat. I won’t name any “upsets” since the ratings at this level are often based on very few games and less reliable than in the other section.

Another three draws in round two amongst the top point group left only two perfect scores. It is becoming increasingly clear that it won’t take a perfect score to win the section.

In round three on the top table, Detroit Robeson 2 emerged as the leader with their victory over Ann Arbor Forsythe. But, there were still two rounds to go. Of the teams a half point back, there were another three drawn matches to these teams a full point off the pace. Detroit Hutchins 1 and Ann Arbor Logan A won their respective matches to reach two and a half points.

Things got a little more decisive in round four. On the top table, Detroit Hutchins 1 stopped the last perfect score, Detroit Robeson 2. Ann Arbor Forsythe was victorious against two and a half pointer, Ann Arbor Logan A. This left Detroit Hutchins 1 as the only three and a half point team with Ann Arbor Forsythe right behind with three points. Other teams making it to three points were Ann Arbor Thurston, Memphis, Detroit Duffield C, Detroit Duffield D, and Monroe MS C.

In the last round, Detroit Hutchins 1 was the only team in control of their own destiny, but top seed Ann Arbor Forsythe edged them out for the match victory. Meaning that Ann Arbor Forsythe reaches four points and guarantees a tie for first. The matches between the other teams at three points were in no mood for draws, either. Detroit Duffield C passed Ann Arbor Thurston, Monroe MS C downed Detroit Robeson 2, and Memphis took out Detroit Duffield D. Therefore, Memphis, Monroe MS C, and Detroit Duffield C join Ann Arbor Forsythe at four points where all four teams are declared section co-champions. And to top thing off on the lower table, another five matches were drawn in the spirit of the section.

Memphis had the most balanced team. Two players, R.J. Perry and Matthew Woolman, earned silver medals, while the other two players both scored three points. Monroe MS C had fourth board Keven Kacher score a gold medal and Jeff Flegal had four point for silver. Third board Brandie James took home the gold for Detroit Duffield C, while Monet Stokes helped out with four points and silver medal. Ann Arbor Forsythe was led by fourth board Mark Johnson with a silver medal for his four and a half points.

Of the two three and a half point teams, both were led by gold medalists on first board. Dante Dixon led the Detroit Hutchins 1 team with the help of Devyne Lloyd at four points. Prashantha Amarasinghe was the first board for Ann Arbor Logan A.