Allegheny Co. sweeps National Marbles Tournament championship

Two Allegheny County youths won the 94th National Marbles Tournament June 22 in Wildwood, N.J.

Sierra Ricci, 12, of Shaler, was crowned the girls champion after defeating Lauren Shutey, 13, of the South Side Flats, in an all-Allegheny final. Ricci won 8-6.

Eli Murphy, 14, of Squirrel Hill, won the boys national championship, coming from six games down to win 8-7 over Joshua Frazho of Genesee County, Mich.

The winners received college scholarships, crowns, trophies, plaques and watches.

Sierra comes from a family of “mibsters,” as marble shooters are known. Her great-grandfather Walt Lease organized a Pittsburgh Citiparks marble shooting program in the 1950s, eventually taken over by the Allegheny County Parks Department and now run by her parents, Ed and Maureen Ricci.

Through the program, they visit schools, malls and clubs, teaching children 14 and younger how to shoot marbles. Then, interested children may attend a county tournament, with the top two boys and girls advancing to nationals.

Sierra's older sister, Amber, is the 2008 girls national champion — one of 32 from Allegheny County since the competition's 1922 inception. “We're lucky to have the sponsor that we have with the county parks and (County Executive) Rich Fitzgerald. A lot of areas don't have that kind of support. It gives us a little bit of an advantage,” Ed Ricci said.

Sierra started shooting marbles when she was four.

“I was kind of born into it.”

She chose to continue the family legacy because “it's unique and different and it gets you off your phone, you know, like, taking a break.” Furthermore, she noted that the game has allowed her to form a friendship with Storm Stasiak, 12, of Shaler, who also competed at nationals, as well as with other mibsters from across the country.

Sierra played 79 games over the course of the four-day national tournament.

“For nationals, I practiced every other day. Two, two and a half hours. … Your hands and knees get dirty. And your fingers blister from the marble.”

Sierra, who has made it to nationals four consecutive times, usually shoots with a black agate marble that her sister used when winning.

“My dad has a replica marble of it, but it's a tiny bit smaller. My aunt went to get my marble, and she accidentally grabbed the replica,” Sierra said. “And I shot with that one in the championship, but I ended up winning with it. So I guess that one is my lucky one.”

Winners are ineligible to compete in future National Marbles Tournaments.

“If they want to stay involved in marbles, they have them become instructors for us,” said Maureen Ricci, who met her husband at a marble tournament.

Sierra aspires to follow in her relatives' footsteps as a marbles coach.

In August, Ed, Sierra and Amber will compete against each other at the Mason Cup, a Maryland marbles tournament open to those who have won or aged out of the nationals.

“My mother-in-law lived in the South Side. That's where our daughter Amber now lives in her house. She has a concrete marble ring outside her house. … So they can compete against each other and practice there,” Maureen Ricci said.

Erica Cebzanov is a Tribune-Review contributor.