At 3 years old, Deer Isle resident Cameron Wendell learned how to play chess. At 5, he joined a team, and by 13, he was spending hours studying, playing and competing.
These days, at 17, the shelves in his room are filled with chess books, and he and his father play several games per week. Despite his continued enthusiasm though, his focus has changed somewhat since those early days.
Since November 2013, Wendell has coached the newly-formed Blue Hill Consolidated School chess team, a group of 10 boys — including many who’d never played chess before. He takes his role as coach seriously and uses it as an opportunity to teach the boys responsibility, independence and the sweet taste of success.
A young but mature coach
Wendell is a junior at Deer Isle-Stonington High School and a nationally-ranked chess champion. He is well-spoken and enthusiastic about his sport, making him a natural leader of his young prodigies.
“As I got older and more serious about chess, I think my maturity developed with it, and now that I’m in a leadership role, the importance [of maturity] is magnified,” Wendell said.
Kim Parrott, mother of seventh-grade player Sam Parrott, said Wendell’s leadership is a key component of the team’s success.
“I think he’s a remarkable young man, he’s a superb chess player himself, and he interacts with the kids in a way that holds their attention,” she said.
The Blue Hill and Deer Isle-Stonington regions have a history of turning out successful chess players. Wendell’s former team held the state title for two decades until they were ousted by the young boys from Blue Hill Consolidated School.
“It’s pretty remarkable that such a small community can put together such a good little chess team,” Parrott said. “There’s a legacy of chess in this area; Cameron came from that, and some of our players came from there. … There’s more to our chess story than meets the eye.”
High expectations
The group of scrappy young boys meets once a week after school almost all year long. Wendell expects them to study chess books and videos, attend practice and play as often as possible.
It’s as intense, if not more, as a traditional athletic sport, Kim Parrott said.
“[Chess] is the perfect antidote to video games in that [my son] is really focused, disciplined and motivated, but not by something electronic,” she said, adding the game has helped Sam develop other life skills as well. “He has to deal with people, navigate the social dynamics … and the competition itself is grueling, each game can last several hours and requires endurance.”
Wendell also requires each player to do well in school and show respect both at competitions and in public.
“They are representatives of their school and of Maine. … It’s terrible to have people think badly of you or your state,” he said.
But he said he has to strike a balance. If he’s too hard on the boys, they’ll stop listening. Too soft, and they may lose focus.
“I try to make sure they act as gentlemanly, polite and good as possible, but it’s also important to keep the mood light,” Wendell said.
Finding success
Whatever he is doing seems to be working.
On April 29, the team tied for second at the National K-9 Junior High Scholastic Chess Championships in Louisville, Kentucky, and brought home some serious hardware. Individual trophies were given to three boys recognized as top scorers, and the second place team trophy was so big it wouldn’t fit in the storage space of the airplane and had to be shipped home.
“I’m quite amazed they’ve done so well, the Deer Isle-Stonington School was state champions for 20 years. The fact that we beat them was kind of mind-boggling,” Wendell said.
Their successes haven’t gone unnoticed by the community either.
Maine-based multimedia producer Kenton Jakub recently created a short documentary about Wendell, and documentarian Veronica Young, is working on a film about the history of the area’s chess culture.
As for Wendell, he wants the attention to stay on his young chess masterminds.
“I’m immensely proud of them, and while my marvel is important, they are the ones who deserve the credit, they’re the ones working hard,” he said.
