Rolling dice on educational winner

Being good at games has always come as a surprise to Joseph Sambriski.

He had to take a gym course while a student at Suffolk County Community College in the mid-1990s. So he registered for a golf class. Surprisingly, he said, he was so good at the game that, by 2007, he was an assistant golf pro at a country club in Glen Head and later at a county course in Riverhead. County layoffs eliminated his job, though.

In 2010, he was helping his sister's children with their math homework. The kids hated flash cards. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, Sambriski came up with a math board game, Diceathon, to help them. He has since sold his game to school districts in Minnesota, Michigan and North Dakota. The game requires kids to roll dice and solve the problems they land on.

Sharon Brighton, principal at the Sodt Elementary School in Monroe, Mich., said math teachers are using the game. "Oh my gosh I love it," Brighton said. "Our kids like it. But it's not an easy game. It's challenging at every level."

"This was my first attempt" at designing a game, said Sambriski, whose company, headquartered at his Holtsville home, is called Samski Gaming Llc. "It was a total shot in the dark."

The game sells for $29.95.