We try to take advantage of every opportunity to let people know about our marble tournaments. Please bookmark our page and let others know about marbles.... playing. Don't forget to watch a local or area tournament near you. Perhaps you can help us start a tournament in your area.
The preliminaries for our American Marble Tournament are conducted in
a lot of places. Many of these tournaments begin in the fall of each year.
But there is still time to get organized in the Spring and be at the Huntington Mall
in July. If you don't understand a rule, email. If you can't figure out
how to get backspin, email. Your champs can be a part of our tournament. You just
have to follow our sanctioning rules. Let us know if you have problems because we can help, email. Our goal is to have you participate in our tournament. Be There!
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American Marbles was formed to promote and
preserve the game of marbles. The reason this game survives is because
adults remember playing marbles as children. These fond memories encourages
adults to create opportunities for children to play marbles.
We have been organizing marble tournaments since 1988. Our "AMERICAN MARBLE TOURNAMENT" (formerly Mountaineer Marble Tournament) was organized in 1990 and has changed its face and name over the years but it has grown and improved. Our players have
come from around the state of West Virginia. The number of players has
varied from year to year. Champs from 19 different counties have played in
our activities at different times over this time. Last year we had 28 boys and 24 girls. Thes champs represent over 6,000 kids in the local tournaments.
We continue to have problems with our computer software but each year things improve and we get our results quicker. In spite of these problems we still had a great tournament. We had over 800 boy matches and over 750 girl matches in the preliminary play. Barboursville, West Virginia has been a great host for our 2005 American Marble Tournament. There are a lot of exciting things to see and do in Cabel County, West Virginia. Perhaps we can see you in 2006 at the Huntington Mall, just east of Huntington in Barboursville, WV, the largest Mall in West Virginia and a great place to showcase the greatest marble shooters in America.
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We believe that part of our task is to motivate children to reach higher,
achieve more and enjoy the pursuit. Overall champions of our American
Marble Tournament are awarded an educational scholarship after graduation
from high school when they enter college or a trade school. Realizing that people have different talents and want to pursue different occupations, our champions can
go to college or trade school. Our desire is that each one thousand dollar scholarship
for each champion will motivate a child to work harder to get into college or trade
school.
We sell bagged marbles to kids in our program. Funds from these sales
make our scholarships possible. We want to acknowledge the support of WV
marble manufacturers in our efforts to raise money for scholarships. To
date children have earned the right to claim $20,000 worth of scholarships.
It is our hope that more and larger scholarships will be available as
we grow. If you are interested in making a donation to our effort or need
information, please email us for more information about
American Marbles.
American Marbles is really interested in
new participants at our marble tournaments. If you are already conducting
a marble tournament, we want to hear from you. If you have never had a
tournament but are interested in working with youth in your area, we want
to hear from you. We have established the following guidelines that have
to be met to participate in our tournament. We ask that the director of a
tournament certified that these guidelines are followed. A director may also
need to provide news coverage or a listing of the participants of the tournament.
1. COMPETITION
A tournament should have at least 100 participants. Several area
tournaments can be combined to meet this requirement. However, this requirement
may be waived by our director in order to get a program started.
Competition will be conducted in two divisions: Boys division and Girls
division. Champions will be 14 years or younger.
2. NO ENTRY FEE TO PARTICIPATE IN A LOCAL TOURNAMENT
In our tournament no entry fee has been charged to the children
participating in a local tournament. An entry fee would limit the number of
children participating. It is our desire that all tournament cost be paid
by a local sponsor or school.
3. RULES FOR RINGER TAUGHT AND ENFORCED.
As children progress in the various levels of
competition it is increasingly important that they understand and follow
the rules of the game. During the competition in WV, rules will be enforced
properly and it will be very disappointing to a champ who has not had rules
enforced before.
4. INSTRUCTION AND COACHING.
All children should receive the same instruction on how to play and excell
at this game. No special coaching will be made available after a tournament is held. Any teacher or director with shooting skills will limit their guidance to the whole group of children in the tournament. We believe that 'marbles' is a family affair. We encourage parents to learn how to play marbles with their champ. The best coaching come from parental encouragement.
5. CONSISTENCY IN THE PLAYING FIELD
The ideal situation would be that all kids could
play their competition on the same type courts that will be used in WV.
(seven and 1/2 foot circle on an indoor/outdoor carpet) We know that all children
do not have the skill to play on a 7 1/2' ring, so a smaller ring (usually not
smaller than 3') is permitted. We also know that all tournaments will not
have the means to provide the larger mat. Therefore, we require that each
local tournament determine and publish the surface and size of court that will be used
in their tournament. (School tournaments can be played on a different size and type of surface than the county tournament but this information must be published early).
6. TOURNAMENT FORMAT AND DOUBLE ENTRY.
Prior to the start of a tournament, the competition format must be
published (single, double elimination or round robin). The units of
competition will also be published (schools, grades or classes). The
tournament coordinator will certify that eliminated children will not
be granted another entry in another unit. The only exception to this provision is when American Marbles conducts an open tournament at a festival.
Click above to see GIRL information.
Click above to see GIRL information.
OUR GOALS
OUR HISTORY
SANCTIONING GUIDELINES
SCHOLARSHIPS
PRINTABLE RINGER RULES
RINGER SHOOTING TIPS
ORGANIZING A TOURNAMENT
GOALS
Our History
Scholarships
Sanction Requirements