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It was for designing a tightrope-walking machine on their own, and it had to carry weights, too, and used in a presentation that was entertaining.

The seven team members are headed to a global competition at month’s end because of their work.

THE CHEESY KINGS

Throughout the school year, the Destination Imagination team at John Adams, self-named The Cheesy Kings, worked to prepare for the Tennessee DI Tournament that took place recently at Spring Hill Middle School near Nashville.

Also from the Tri-Cities, a DI team from Lake Ridge Elementary in ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ also competed in the state DI and is headed to the global competition, as previously reported.

Destination Imagination combines engineering and the arts in a STEAM or science, technology, engineering, arts and math event.

Teams get to choose their areas of planned competition, although at globals there also will be an “instant� challenge with about five to seven minutes to prepare, teacher Cassie Phillips said.

The fourth and fifth grade team members from the Adams team, from a school whose mascot name is the Colts, are fourth graders Danny Bailey, Harrison Phillips, Isaac Kremer and Hudson Tipton; and fifth graders Charles Hall, Jamen Eslinger, and Lincoln Sentell. Sponsoring teachers are Cassie Phillips and Jamie Doran.

WHY THE NAME?

The skit used a circus motiff, but the cheesy name was a whole other matter.

Lincoln, who plays the part of Strongman Cheese and “lifts� a 1,000-pound weight, said he came up with The Cheesy Kings as a joke name.

“Cheese has just been in their lingo,� Tipton said Wednesday of the naming of the group, which includes her son.

“It’s specifically me. They call me the Cheese King because I eat a tremendous amount of it,� Lincoln said Thursday when asked the origins of the name. “I just shouted it out. It was just to be for a laugh, but they loved it.�

TIGHTROPE CHALLENGE

In engineering, the team’s challenge was to build a machine that could walk across a tightrope while carrying weights and present it in a visual story form. Per the rules, no adult involvement was allowed.

“I helped create and write the skit we performed,� Harrison Phillips, a fourth grader who played the part of the ring master and is Cassie Phillips’ son, said Thursday. He said he plans to reapply to be on the team next year.

Students had to fill out a form to apply. The teacher said initially the school had two teams but they merged into one when the teams had difficulty with the competition tasks.

Harrison said he “really likes� engineering as the reason he applied, and he said his future plans may include spacecraft design rather than a tightrope machine.

“I really want to be a rocket scientist,� he said.

Until that may come to pass, his and the rest of the team’s creativity, teamwork, perseverance and humor were an inspiration throughout the process, according to Board of Education member Todd Golden in honoring the team at the Tuesday, May 13, BOE meeting.

SCIENCE AND COMEDY

The comedy they wrote into their skit had the judges laughing out loud during their performance, according to Golden at the meeting and team mom Brittney Tipton in a news release from the team.

At a crucial point in the presentation, she and Golden said, the machine the team built fell off the tightrope and shattered. Undeterred, the team banded together and jumped into action. They rebuilt their machine and sent it flying successfully across the tightrope just in time in a testament to perseverance.

KANSAS CITY HERE THEY COME

That perseverance earned them first place in engineering and a chance to compete at the Destination Imagination Global Tournament taking place in late May in Kansas City, Missouri.

Some of the team plans to fly with their familes, while others will drive the journey. Those flying are leaving Thursday morning, May 22, and Friday morning, May 23, will do the instant challenge, followed by the planned challenge that afternoon. The event will wrap up Sunday, May 25.

“I think we will win,� Harrison said.

The DI rules don’t allow the teams making globals to share video of their competition until after the global competition is completed, Tipton said.

However, for a promotion video of the team, go to the John Adams Elementary PTO at

In addition, a montage reel of the team preparing for the competition with no sound, taken and provided by Tipton, is available for viewing on the ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ page at and the newspaper’s page at