A pair of local teams competed in the district level Tennessee Senior Brain Games last week in Knoxville, with both the Loudon County Senior Center and Friends of the Tellico Village Public Library placing in the top two in the six-team contest.
Friends of the Tellico Village Library placed first with 134 points and finished just two points ahead of the senior center team. The contest also included competitors from senior centers in Knox, Sevier, Morgan and Anderson counties.
The local library team, which consisted of Doug Christman, Billie Whitney, Jan Elliott and alternate Dave Damm, will now head to the semifinals Sept. 26 in Knoxville to face groups from Johnson City and Chattanooga.
“It’s a competition, and, of course, everybody’s trying to win, there’s no question about that, but it’s not one of those things where everybody’s dead serious and griping and groaning,” Doug Christman, Friends board chairman, said. “... It was competitive. ... You were trying your best. It’s all based on trivia questions, that’s what it all is. ... So everybody hears the same question at the same time and you have 45 seconds to answer, which you then write down on your answer sheet and turn in.
“... It was a fun competition,” he added. “Everybody was smiling, enjoying themselves. You could see everybody’s having a good time. To me that’s the best kind of competition.”
Team members worked together to come up with the best answer and wager based on the team’s confidence and point values in the different categories, according to Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability, which organized the event. The statewide contest will be similar to game show Jeopardy!
Loudon County Senior Center Director Gail Williams said this year was the first time other groups involving seniors were allowed to compete in the games. Previously, only senior centers could participate.
Billie Whitney, director of education and outreach with the library, said the plan next year will be to form a team based on a local competition among Villagers and hone in on certain specialties for each member.
“I guess you could study in subject blocks, but I think when we’re fielding a team what we’d like to do is try to find people that have expertise like in sports,” Whitney said. “Each round had a sports question, and then maybe somebody else that has expertise in literature and science or just general knowledge kind of things.”
Although the senior center placed second, Williams said there were some positives to take away from this year’s game. Loudon County Senior Center has improved one rank over the past three years it has participated.
This year’s team included Janet Trimbath, Viola Johnston, Lois Snow and alternate Tedd Trimbath. Snow served as the only member to return from last year’s team. Trimbath participated in three episodes of Jeopardy! in 1970.
“We had a perfect score in the last round,” Snow said about the games. “We answered all our questions. We had good strategy, and so we were on the edge of our chairs. ... The adrenaline got going a few times.”
If successful in the semifinals, Friends of the Tellico Village Library will head to the finals to face two-time champion The Morristown Senior Gamers in October in Morristown.
Williams said the winner receives a trophy and $1,000.
“I don’t care how old we get, we always are a little (competitive), and so every year (we think), ‘We’re going to win this year. We’re going to get it’,” Williams said. “This year was the closest with two points. ... It’s just kind of a friendly competition that really is good for their brains and everything.”
