Josh J. '22 knew that this week's four-day National Marbles Tournament in Wildwood, NJ was his last opportunity to be crowned Marble King. After five years of competition and seven years as a mibster (a marble player), next summer Josh, a rising AIM 9th grader, will be too old to compete in the invitational Ringer marbles tournament for youth ages 7-14.

Throughout the week he crouched on the concrete Rings set up on the beach along the Wildwood boardwalk and calmly and deliberately shot his agate shooter marble at 13 target marbles assembled in a 10-foot circle with competitors from around the country including Colorado and Washington. He advanced with each passing inning and game finishing first place in the preliminaries with a record of 49-5. In his semifinal competition he handily won his 12-game match 11-1 to advance to the final competition on Thursday, June 21.

On the first day of summer, under overcast skies, Josh took to The Ring again for a best of 15 game match and shot his way to victory for an 8-1 and the royal crown. In addition to his royal marbles title, Josh and the female winner also received $2,000 in scholarship money and were inducted into the National Marbles Hall of Fame.

While Josh, who competes for the Ambler marbles team, was of course thrilled to win the competition, he told SNJ Today in a television interview that his favorite part of the tournament was the good sportsmanship all of the players showed throughout the week. 

“Everyone is in such a great attitude the whole week,” Josh said. “Although it may be very humid and hot everyone is still in top attitude and had the best motivation.”