When Earle STEM Academy announced that the chess club would have to go because there wasn't enough funding, teacher Joseph Ocol decided to volunteer his time to keep it going. Here he practices with 7-year-old Taahir Levi after school Feb. 16, 2016. [DNAinfo/Andrea V. Watson]
WEST ENGLEWOOD — A more than $17,000 cut to a West Englewood elementary school's budget nearly spelled "checkmate" for the school's top-ranked chess club — but the club's leader is stepping up to save the program.
After the budget cuts were announced, Earle STEM Academy moved to cut the money for the team.
When students found out, they were devastated. The team has racked up multiple first-place finishes in tournaments.
“I felt upset,” said 7-year-old Arieana Glover. “I like being on the chess team.”
But the team's coach, Joseph Ocol, a math teacher, said he wouldn't walk away from the team's 35 students.
“I couldn’t imagine leaving them,” said Ocol, who lives in Belmont Cragin. He now plans to coach the team without pay.
Before the cuts, he had another staff member’s help, but now it’s just him. Ocol now will volunteer twice a week, from 4-6 p.m. at the school, 2040 W. 62nd St., and all day on Saturdays when the team competes. He pays for snacks and lunch for the team out of his own pocket.
“It’s compensation seeing them competing and learning," he said.
Ocol said the team also offers a way to keep kids safe by keeping them off the streets from 3-6 p.m., a dangerous time for them because of the lack of adult supervision. He originally started a chess club a Marshall Metropolitan High School, where he taught previously, in 2005 after one of his students was killed.
“The reason I started it there is because one of my kids was shot dead,” he said. “This is about saving lives.”
Earle has had its chess club since 2014. The students have won four first-place trophies this academic year. They made it to the Top 20 in the Under 800 category in the 2015 National Scholastic (K-12) Chess Tournament in Orlando. It was their first time in a national tournament.
Student chess players during a recent practice. [DNAinfo/Andrea Watson]
The Earle Academy student chess team and coach Joseph Ocol (far r.).
They most recently took home first place after competing against nearly 400 students from all over Chicago in the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago Chess Tournament last November.
“Our kids are from the Englewood area, and I just feel proud of them that despite being in this crime-prone and poverty-stricken area, they have managed somehow to get to the top among chess players,” Ocol said.
Many of Ocol's students said they like playing chess even though it's a hard game to learn.
“He’s nice. He helps. He’s friendly and kind,” 7-year-old Taahir Levi said of Ocol.
When Taahir first joined, he said he was shy, but he has since opened up, crediting the “fun” environment.
Before joining the club, third-grader Gavin Harry, 9, wasn’t happy when he learned that the club was going to fold.
“I was sad because I couldn’t go to the practices, and they all know that I love chess,” Gavin said.
The school’s assistant principal, Elwanda Butler, said that the decision disband the club wasn’t difficult because the school knew they would likely have volunteers to step in.
“We know we have staff members we can count on, and we were planning way ahead of time,” Butler said.
But Butler said she recognizes that this is more than a game for the students; the students are learning life lessons at the same time.
“As far as life skills, they’re learning how to stop and think, which helps them become more reflective citizens,” Butler said. “If you’re able to stop and think, that will prevent you from making harsh or rash decisions or it’ll prevent you from making mistakes.”
Carlisa Ford, 9, says she likes being on the chess team and is getting better. [DNAinfo/Andrea V. Watson]
Chess is about more than a game, Ocol said, which is why he wants the students to learn the game.
“Every piece has something to do with life,” he said. “I always ask them, ‘Who is the king in your life and who is the queen?’ ”
He wants them to realize that they are kings in their lives because they are in control of the decisions they make. In chess, the queen is about sacrifices.
“Who sacrifices for you in order for you to reach the goal? In chess you can sacrifice the queen, but you can’t sacrifice the king. If you lose the king, you lose the game. You lose the queen, you [can] still win the game.”
His plan is to reach out to friends and organizations and ask them to help sponsor a child. Ocol said it's going to be far more difficult to take the team to national competitions out of state; the team will not have a budget for that.
“If you bring about six kids, depending on the destination, you spend about $6,000,” Ocol said.
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