News and Features

Merle Reinford, 300th chess win

LMH math teacher and chess coach Merle Reinford enjoyed his 300th chess win January 28 against Ephrata High School and then saw his team win the 11th league title for the school. Reinford is in his 31st season of coaching in the Lancaster Scholastic League. During this time, the LMH chess teams have enjoyed a better than .775 winning percentage.

"The success can be credited to my having a group of players that have been … dedicated to the team," he said. "While some coaches have to deal with students showing up for matches only when they want to, mine have been pretty consistent."

Reinford recently reminisced about some of his career highlights, starting with the 1992-93 season.

"That was the first time we won the league title and the first time we went to States," he said. "That year we finished in third place in the highest division at States, partly because that was the year of the big blizzard and quite a few teams did not show up. We got snowed in at Bloomsburg after the tournament was over.

Maybe they didn’t really need the blizzard, though, because in 1995 his team enjoyed their first undefeated season and finished second in the highest division of States. His team also had undefeated seasons in 2001, 2002, and 2007. From 2000 to 2003, his teams went undefeated for 47 consecutive matches.

In 1998 his team tied for second place in the highest division of States, and in 2004 they finished first in the U1000 division of States—the first state championship for Lancaster Mennonite.

Reinford has had many students win individual trophies at States—the most significant being Peter Weida who in 2007 earned the honor of being the top player in the State of Pennsylvania for grade 8 and under.