The following players are recognized for their outstanding performances during 2019: 

Most improved Player award

cheri grizzard / mary maddox

 Cheri raised her club rating from 892 to 955 and her scoring average from 364 to 375!! Regular games at Charleston and Champaign clubs and with her kinfolk likely helped. Mary boosted her rating from 1088 to 1146; her scoring average rose from 359 to 392!! She significantly improved her rate of bingos while appearing to play more fearlessly. 

 spirit award

daiva markelis / darin true

 Daiva enthusiastically attended club meetings even when she was down on her luck, losing repeatedly, or simply feeling the need for an earnest compliment or a long nap. This is the first time she’s qualified for this award, but I anticipate it will not be the last. Darin played 222 games in 21 NASPA rated tourneys in nine different states in 2019!!! And he also traveled from Peoria to the Charleston Club to play 21 club rated games .

outrageous * award

della Lutz / angela vietto

Della’s outrageous phoney was the “word”, SEMETICS*! Angela’s was VIBRATER*! Various overtly racist or stereotypically misogynistic comments may be, unfortunately, evoked when one considers these “words”. Fortunately, Scrabble players are not generally the kind of people who would attempt to garner cheap laughs with low humor. Accordingly, I will merely point out that SEMETIC* has an acceptable anagram, EMETICS, and that SEMITIC*, another phony “word”, properly anagrams to MISCITE. Unfortunately, VIBRATER* has no acceptable anagram, and neither does VIBRATOR.

 sincerity award

wendy edwards

 Wendy qualified for this award by averaging at least one bingo per game and having no bogus bingos recorded all year. Wendy actually played 25 acceptable bingos in 21 club games! Impressively, this is the second straight year and third time in five years Wendy has won the Sincerity Award!! At this point it may be fair to say Wonderful Wendy is sincerity personified