Pipe of Power; cup of fame

Liberty captures SCIL’s 2008-09 Sullivan Cup with win in Round Six

By RICHARD A. ROSS

GRAHAMSVILLE, NY — The Liberty tribe embarked on its search for the Aztec’s lost Pipe of Power, along with SCIL teams from Monticello, Sullivan West, Roscoe, Eldred, Tri-Valley and Fallsburg, on April 28.

The quest to trace the legendary object once held by the Aztec Emperor, and fabled to empower its possessor to turn everything he touched into gold (literally and metaphorically), required extensive research through volumes of Wikipedia articles, physics skills to design a ship that could sail quickly through a trough, mathematical equations to source out numbers for a combination on a treasure chest and the patience of saints to sift through a mind-boggling mother lode of papers detailing famous people, locales and dates. While having the pipe would lead its possessor to good fortune, losing it would translate into some form of catastrophe. This was round six, the last frontier of this year’s SCIL meets, and with scores so far close, the day’s winner would likely take home the coveted cup last won a year ago by Tri-Valley.

This meet was held after school at Tri-Valley, an augur of just one of a number of changes that may affect SCIL in 2009-10. Issues of economics, some concerns about lost class time that would shunt the program out of its normal time during school days, and a possible change of auspices to Sullivan County BOCES, leaves a number of questions about SCIL’s future.

Current SCIL leader Brian Tingley and his able assistant Ron Hughes brainstormed this challenge. With rumored changes on the horizon, these two teachers, who have been deeply involved in SCIL for 10 of the program’s 18 years, may have viewed this meet as final in an even more profound sense.

After constructing their ships and having them evaluated for their speed on the high seas, the students began to try and decipher how the Pipe of Power changed hands. Time constraints prevented teams from unlocking the entire chronology, but Liberty surfaced as the day’s scored winner, earning 200 for getting the furthest. Tri-Valley was second with 180, Sullivan West was third with 172.5, Monticello was fourth with 171,25 and Eldred was fifth with 147.5.

When the year’s totals were announced, Liberty emerged victorious with 1,229 points. Monticello was second with 1,114, Sullivan West was third with 1,102, Tri-Valley was fourth with 1061 and Eldred took fifth with 969.

Tingley traced the pipe’s trail in great detail for the curious cup seekers.

Sullivan SCIL stars will take on the team from Oswego in this year’s SOS Challenge to be held at the Museum at Bethel Woods this month. Last year, Sullivan County won that fourth competition for the first time.

Click here for an album of photos.