Giving a shoutout to the CoCo's newest class of directors
When we first opened up shop back in late 2019, we started out as a small, mom-and-pop type of operation, to say the least. We had a team of directors you could count on one hand. We had a modest group of people running modest events. We operated out of people's kitchens, their living rooms, the community rooms in their apartment buildings. Sometimes we got really adventurous and we'd host an event at the bar down the street. Things were low-budget, low-risk, and low-stress. Things were simple.
Eventually, though, we set our sights on growth. We wanted to take on bigger events, in bigger venues, in more places, attracting more people. And for that to happen, there was one thing we needed first and foremost - more directors.
Fast-forward by five years, and we can thankfully say we have a robust team of people directing events under the CoCo banner. As of this writing, there are 39 names on our roster of directors, and many of them have been actively coming back to run events again and again, year after year. (Month after month, in a few cases.) We're very fortunate to have this much personpower at our disposal.
At the same time, we haven't gotten complacent - we've always stayed looking for new directing talent. You can never have enough good people willing to direct events, especially in new geographic areas where we're trying to drum up more opportunities for CSW Scrabble play.
With that in mind, I especially want to give a shoutout to our newest class of directors. We've been thrilled to add 6 great new people in the last 6 months, all of whom have hit the ground running and held tournaments in their respective cities. Thanks to these individuals, the CoCo right now is stronger than ever.
In chronological order…
Ed De Guzman: Ed joined us in late 2024, hosting the first CoCo-sanctioned California Open in downtown San Francisco in December. The CO was a rousing success, with 33 players from all over the U.S. and Canada descending upon the Bay Area. In other words, Ed joined the CoCo ranks and was running one of the biggest events on the CoCo tournament calendar from day one. Not too shabby!
Niel Gan: Niel lives in the Providence, RI area, and he came to us in January with the idea of launching more CoCo events in his neck of the woods. We jumped at the chance! There's a vibrant community of CSW Scrabblers in New England, and Niel stepped up and gave them local 1-days to play in right away. He hosted one successful event at a local brewery in March, then a second in April. Here's hoping that this is the start of a regular thing!
Guy Ingram: Another new director putting the CoCo on the map in his hometown! Guy hails from Rome, GA, and he's got a small but spirited group of Scrabble buddies in the area to play Collins with - not to mention, he owns his own business, so he's got an office space that serves as a readymade tournament venue. In May, the "Romega Classic" was born, and six Scrabblers enjoyed a weekend-long tournament, the CoCo's first ever in Georgia. Nice work, Guy.
Eric Fox: A relatively new player who's been attending our tournaments for about two years now, Eric spent a while looking for a venue where he could begin hosting tournaments in his native Bellingham, WA. Early in 2025, he found one - his local fire station! The inaugural Bellingham Fire Station Tournament was last month, and it was small but successful. Bellingham is a great little town, right on the border with Canada, an easy drive from both Seattle and Vancouver. I'm optimistic that Eric's future tournaments can start to draw bigger crowds.
Tony Boyle: Tony has only been with us for a couple of tournaments so far, but he's already gung-ho about directing. There's been a relative dearth of Scrabble opportunities in his native Colorado of late, so Tony decided to step up and do something about it. He's put a great deal of energy into researching venues, organizing events, and recruiting players, and it's all about to pay off - his first directorial effort is coming up in Denver on June 21, followed immediately by his second on the 22nd.
Travis Chaney: Travis has run plenty of events over the years, but his first CoCo one is coming up soon, and it's gonna be a blast! His "Bend Weekend" is set to be a combination of Anagrams, pub crawling, online games, and a 1-day Scrabble tournament on the Sunday - all set across the backdrop of Bend, OR, an absolutely beautiful city. Props to Travis on an awesome tournament idea, and welcome to the CoCo team.
All six of these new directors have different backgrounds and different origin stories as directors, but there are a lot of similarities. First and foremost, all six of them looked at the Scrabble scene in their respective areas, saw a need for more events, and showed a willingness to step up and make those events happen themselves.
It's laudable stuff, really. Directing can be a lot of work, and it's daunting to put in the effort to organize events not even knowing whether people will show up. There's a leap of faith required there. But to all six of these guys' credit, they took that leap, and it's paid off. They've gotten tournaments off the ground, and they're all thriving.
This is what successful Scrabble organizations are made of - great people who are willing to put in the work to build and grow tournaments. If you have enough of them, in enough places, all across the land, you can have something real and sustainable. Right now, we're lucky to have a roster loaded with such people.
But we're always eager to find more. The more people we have, running more tournaments, on more weekends, in more places, all across the U.S. and Canada, the more we can do to deliver top-notch CSW Scrabble experiences for the player community. With a mission like that, there's no such thing as too much help. The more great directors, the merrier.