The 2013-2014 school year has been an interesting one for Metea Valley High School. During this time, Metea has begun to emerge as an athletically gifted school. In the Winter season for 2013-2014, both the Girls’ Cheerleading team and  the Girls’ Bowling team progressed to the Illinois State Tournament for their respective competitions.

Recently, the Metea Valley Chess Team qualified and entered the Illinois High School Association Chess Team State Tournament. They played well throughout the weekend that the tournament. Aside from a few mishaps and unexpected losses in the first round, the team progressed as expected. When the tournament came to an end, the Mustangs placed 29th in the competition.

When asked about how the team practiced throughout the year, Chess team captain Michael Gao said “We’ve worked really hard for a while now, since we started at the beginning of the year. Our practices have mainly consisted of things like doing practice drills and playing scrimmage games. Then we also had a monthly tournament to decide our rankings within ourselves. “

Along with this, he also gave insight into his hopes for the following years.  “Next year, I hope we become more structured. I think if we had drills that focused on tactics and strategies along with scrimmages, our game would be greatly improved.  Overall, my main goal for next year’s chess team is to place in the top 15 teams in the state tournament. This year, we beat some teams in the top 20, so I think it’s doable.”

By Jake Gallucci

Picture courtesy of Giphy.com