We're gearing up for an exciting 2023. The tournament calendar is starting to fill out, and we're looking forward to a year jam-packed with fun tournaments happening all across North America.

Right now, with the year just starting to kick into high gear, I thought it would be a good time to share a few updates on everything that's going on with us as an organization. Here's a rundown on the state of the CoCo...

Thank you for everything, Steve Pellinen

The CoCo - and all of Scrabble - received devastating news in January, as Steve Pellinen's health took a turn for the worse. Steve has been an invaluable member of the CoCo team from the very beginning, serving on our board of directors and working tirelessly to organize tournaments and coordinate many other efforts behind the scenes. Last month, he informed us that he could no longer continue working with us; we accepted his resignation and wished him nothing but the very best.

Our whole team is immensely thankful for everything Steve has done for us over the years. The Scrabble world is far, far better off for having had Steve in it.

Welcome, Randi Goldberg

Steve's departure from our board left an open seat that needed filling - and we were pleased to see a fantastic candidate step up and offer to fill it. Randi Goldberg has been a driving force behind the CoCo from the start, as well as a frequent tournament player and organizer. She offered last month to join our board, and the other four members - Peter Armstrong, Yukiko Loritz, Rob Robinsky, and myself - unanimously approved.

Randi told us when she came aboard that she has "a lot of ideas for how to expand the Scrabble world." We're excited to hear them. With Randi on the team, we look forward to doing far more to grow the CoCo and grow the game.

The return of CoCo Club

Since January 2021, Collins players across North America and around the world have been virtually gathering together every Tuesday in the CoCo's online club, hosted on Woogles.io, to play five-game sessions. Unfortunately, we had to temporarily shut the club down in January 2023, as our longtime director Rod Weis found himself with a work commitment on Tuesdays that he couldn't get out of.

The shutdown didn't last long! Upon hearing of the club's closing, a handful of loyal players stepped up and offered to help Rod with his directing duties. Rod now has three new trainees that he's working to get up to speed, and the new team is in the process of resurrecting CoCo Club as we speak. Long live Tuesday night Scrabble.

The CoCo YouTube channel is new and improved

Speaking of the CoCo's online presence: Have you checked out our YouTube channel lately? Because it's pretty awesome.

For starters, it's got a cool new URL, as YouTube recently started letting organizations pick out their own vanity addresses. Ours is easy to remember: youtube.com/@cocoscrabble.

Plus, we've got some all-new content on the channel for viewers to enjoy. Christian Kay, our tournament streamer extraordinaire, did an absolutely fantastic job producing videos of each round of last month's New Orleans tournament. You can check those out at any time. There's also a deep archive of footage from previous tournaments - including Word Cup, Austin Tile X-Words, and a bunch of the virtual events we hosted during the early days of the pandemic. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Scrabblers on "how sport impacts the mind"

Have you ever wondered whether exercise can sharpen your mind and enhance your Scrabble abilities? Well, there's some interesting content on that topic you may want to check out. The sportswear company ASICS recently conducted a study on "how sport impacts the mind," and they worked with competitors in a wide range of mind sports to explore the subject.

Participants in the ASICS project included a professional street fighter, a former memory champion, a mahjongg player, a chess International Master, and... four regular CoCo players. Deborah Komatsu, Sandy Nang, Austin Shin, Lindsay Shin are all featured. The final product was a feature-length documentary! Check it out, if you're so inclined.

An outlook on 2023 tournaments

Last but not least... let's talk about tournaments! (Because after all, the whole point of a Scrabble organization is to run Scrabble tournaments. It's easy to lose sight of that.)

We were pleased to announce a whole batch of new events last week for players to enjoy throughout 2023. There are now 10 tournaments on the calendar between now and this fall - the first is the fifth annual Hood River Open, which is just two weeks away, and the last is our flagship North American Collins Championship, taking place the weekend of Nov. 10.

We're excited for all of them. But we're also not resting on our laurels - we're working hard to add more tournaments to the calendar and beef up our offerings for 2023 and beyond. To that end, we'll be reaching out to plenty of directors and organizers in the weeks ahead... and we'd love to see even more people come forward and express interest in running events too. If you're interested, or if you know anyone else who might be, please do drop us a line.

But for now, the 10 tournaments on the calendar will do. If you'd like, you can check out our tournaments page today and find a Scrabble event near you.