Back in the late 80's, Mike Clark played chess at sea in between retrieving the Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters after launches. He was a fair player and got the attention of a Shuttle Operations Manager, Gene Gorrel. Now Gene enjoyed playing Go with Kee Yamasaki but Kee was hard to pin down. In desperation, Gene taught Mike the game. That was the beginning.
When Mike moved on to Space Shuttle launch operations in '97, he looked for other players. Having none in view, he taught several engineers in '98 but only two kept returning: George Lebovitz and Steve Schneider. By late 1998 plans had been laid for organized monthly meetings at the local Merritt Island Barnes & Noble. Mike reluctantly agreed to be president of the fledgeling club. Steve registered SCAGA with the American Go Association (AGA) and signed on as treasurer, helping to secure equipment from the Ing Foundation. George was the vice president. For a time, SCAGA was the only AGA-registered GO club to be found between Miami and Atlanta, drawing players from as far away as Orlando, Daytona, Jacksonville, and Vero Beach.
When Mike left the area in 2002, George took the helm as president. Sustained interest grew under his leadership, perhaps because of his persistent and entertaining style of e-mailings. Meetings were twice a month until mid-2005 when the membership decided to play every week. Along the way, the meeting place changed to the Melbourne (where most of the "regular" players lived) Books-A-Million.
The Space Coast Go Association enjoys a friendly local contingent of 6-8 players each Sunday; sometimes more. Players ages vary from 7 to 70 and skill levels from rank beginner to Dan-level. The common thread at the heart of SCAGA is both teaching and learning the game. We have always welcomed new players and enthusiastically try to spread the "gospel of Go."
SCAGA has many sets of boards and stones available on any given Sunday. Additionally, many of the members bring personal sets. It is a treat to play with slate and clam-shells on thick boards. A recent addition to the club's equipment was a large magnetic board (made by Fred Ungewitter, who started the Fun Coast Go Club in Daytona Beach) which is used as both an attraction and as a demo board for teaching.
Although the club does meet every Sunday, George usually sends out meeting notifications via e-mail a few days in advance. These e-mails are generally amusing and can contain pertinent information regarding special occasions or exceptions (we recently skipped Easter and Mother's Day Sundays). If interested, contact George and let him know you want to be added to the mailing list.
If you have suggestions about the SCAGA web site, contact the maintainer. SCAGA thanks Kim aka "GoPhantom" from the Pittsburgh Go Association who designed the wonderful beach graphic and Shuttle-on-stone picture in June 2006.