A number of local students were big winners at a local chess tournament.
Wawa's École Saint-Joseph hosted its eighth annual Franco-Nord-Ouest Chess Tournament on May 23rd, involving over 300 Grade 3 to 12 students from 20 French-language schools from across the North: Wawa, Dubreuilville, Chapleau, as far southeast as the Sudbury area and northwest as Thunder Bay.
Teams from the host school performed well: coming in first, second, and tying for third in the Grades 3 and 4 category; topping the Grades 5 and 6 category, ahead of Chapleau's École Sacré-Cœur; coming second in the Grades 7 and 8 category behind a team from Sudbury's École St-Denis; and - while Chapleau's ÉSC Trillium won the Secondary category - a team from Wawa's École Saint-Joseph came second while two others from the school tied for third.
Individually: Ecole Saint-Joseph students Zackael Lefrançois, Caleb Lefrançois, and Finn Maclary came first for Grades 3 and 4; Saint-Joseph student Jeremy Leonard and Gavin Schaffer of Sault Ste. Marie's Écho-des-Rapides came first in Grades 5 and 6; École Saint-Joseph's Gavin Burnham and Jesse Franklin topped Grades 7 and 8; and two students from Chapleau's ÉSC Trillium, Noah Taylor and Xander Jaworski, came first in the Secondary category.
École Saint-Joseph also thanks the Rotary Club of Wawa for its support of the tournament and local chess club.