Chattahoochee

Chattahoochee High School
Location: Johns Creek, GA
Coaches	Elliott Rountree
State Championships	2002, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014
Program Status	Unknown
School Size	Unknown
NAQT Page	link

Chattahoochee High School is a school in Georgia that runs the Chattahoochee Academic Team Tournament in mid-December every year. The 2010 CATT VI was a mirror of BATE; prior to 2010, the tournament was a housewritten event which was the subject of some criticism. Some recent tournaments have resumed using housewrites.

The team has met recent success at NAQT's High School National Championship tournament placing T7th in 2009 and T8th in 2012. The 2009 team consisted of seniors Wes Austin, Austin Wang, Victoria Shore, and junior Connie Prater.

In 2011 Chattahoochee broke the record for the most negs at HSNCT with 76. Player's from that year's team competed at PACE NSC as the Sidney Lanier Experience and placed 15th. Their dominance as the top negging team continued into 2012 with 60, 34 of which came from resident negger Nirav.

History

2011-2012

2012 HSNCT: The team, consisting of seniors Sophia Chen, Jimmy Zhou, and David Benas, junior Alex Liu, and freshman Nirav Ilango, had a terrible start on Saturday, going 2-2 (including a 5-point loss to an Idrees-less Dunbar). However, after lunch, the team went on to win six straight games, capping it off with an upset of LASA A. The team went 8-2 in prelims for the first time in the school's history, and Nirav, the team's leading scorer, was named a Freshman All-Star. On Sunday, Hooch sent Christiansburg to losers before being trounced by Ladue. A win over Great Neck South lead to a rematch against East Chapel Hill, who had lost to Hooch by only 20 points in their prelim game. Chattahoochee again managed to squeeze out a 15-point win, despite having five negs (for their fourth game in a row). Chattahoochee was ultimately eliminated by fellow Georgia school Centennial, thanks to Adam Silverman deciding to be a jerk and getting ten powers. The team finished tied for 8th with a record of 11-4, matching the 2009 team's record of eleven wins at HSNCT. With 60 negs, the team also had the most negs of any team in the tournament, including eventual champion Bellarmine.

2012-2013

Regular Season: Building off their success at HSNCT, Hooch had a successful year, which saw two upsets of Dorman, a third-place finish behind Ladue and DCC at WUHSAC, and a 13-0 run at an invite-only HFT mirror at Marist. Low points included a disastrous 3-6 record at Cedar Shoals' SCT DII mirror (in which only two A team members were present) and a third place finish at the state tournament after being beat down by Norcross and eventual champion Etowah without leading scorer Nirav. At NHBB, Nirav placed second in the Geo Bee and the JV History Bee, while the team finished in the top 16 in the Varsity Bowl. Rankings for the team varied, with the team hovering around the low-20s to high-40s in the Morlan rankings and near the bottom end of top-25 polls.

2013 HSNCT: Chattahoochee had high hopes for the 2013 HSNCT, and sent a team consisting of Jiaxiu Zhong, Alex Liu, James Tang, and Nirav Ilango. The day started out strong, with the team going 5-1, including a win over Guilford. However, Jiaxiu had to leave to give her valedictorian speech at Chattahoochee's graduation ceremony, leaving only three members of team at the tournament and almost no real science knowledge. Hooch miraculously managed to upset IMSA A 365-290 to reach 6-1, meaning that they needed only one more game to reach 7-3. However, Chattahoochee dropped their last three games, being destroyed by Blair, soundly defeated by East Chapel Hill after being up at the half, and beaten by Olmsted Falls in a frustrating round on the last tossup. Despite being back to full strength on Sunday, the team went 1-1 in the losers bracket, defeating Treasure Valley but losing to North Hollywood on the last tossup. Chattahoochee finished tied for 50th, finishing outside of the top 32 for the first time in several years. Chattahoochee also fell short of a three-peat of being the highest-negging team overall at the tournament.

2013-2014

Regular Season: After the previous year's disappointment, Chattahoochee resolved to stop sucking at science and to stop negging every tossup in sight. Both problems are the process of being solved, with the emergence of people who actually know science and Nirav's realization that he has teammates who know things.

2014 NSC: At their first official appearance at NSC since 2009, a team consisting of Julia Tallant, Nirav Ilango, James Tang, Amith Punyala, and Sahrudh Dharanendra finished 13th.

2014 HSNCT: The A team, consisting of Julia, Nirav, James, and Amith, went 7-3 on Saturday and finished T-8th on Sunday, matching other top finishes for Chattahoochee. The B team, led by Sahrudh, finished with a 6-4 record on Saturday (with a 5-point win over Amador Valley in their tenth game) to make the playoffs, the first Chattahoochee B team to do so. Hilariously, the B team and the A team were the top two negging teams after Saturday (with 51 and 49 negs, respectively). The A team finished with 72 negs, only four away from matching the record set by the 2011 Chattahoochee A team.

The season saw the departure of longtime coach Rountree, who left behind a legacy of multiple state championships, several high finishes at national tournaments, and a culture of negging.

2014-2015

Regular Season: The team began the school year with their honor tarnished by being left out of Fred's preseason rankings. Shockingly, their worst subject was not science, a fact that was celebrated until they didn't manage to win their first tournament of the year.

Current members

Seniors (2015)

• Nirav Ilango (Captain)
• Amith Punyala
• Sahrudh Dharanendra

Juniors (2016)

• Aditya Duddikunta
• Alex Patton
• Frank Huang
• Isabella Cheng
• Sachit Anandan

Sophomores (2017)

• Tej Guttikonda
• Others

Georgia NASAT team members

• Nirav Ilango (2013)