Matthew Sanza, sophomore, and Rene Turija, sophomore, medaled during the State competition on Friday and Saturday.

“It’s a great feeling. I have worked very hard this year and it paid off”, Sanza said.

“We did a good job, I’m really proud of the team, having two of our eight players medal, we have never done that before,” Tom Bond, coach, said.

The team as a whole placed 2^nd in the SPC Conference and 3^rd in the Far Side Conference.

“Overall it was a very good season,” Tom Klimek, senior, said. “Everyone did very well and we accomplished almost everything that we wanted to.”

“The guys overall played well and we worked very hard this season,” Jason Mayfield, junior, said.

As a team they had overall a lot of success not without attributing to their hard work.

“It always takes hard work, and we played a lot of teams this year,” Bond said.

With this experience they attained over the season there was a lot of growth from the players.

“They get better at tactics and simply better at playing chess,” Bond said.

Though chess is an individual sport, the team formed a bond through practice.

“We learned a lot of strategy from each other practicing against one another and it definitely helped as a team,” Oliver Pietryszek, junior, said.

“It’s great to share a common bond with these guys and play a game we all like to play,” Klimek said.

Looking to the future, the Chess team expects to continue their success.

“We are only losing two of our players next year that are seniors,” Bond said.