Collins Hill

Collins Hill High School
Location: Suwanee, GA
Coaches	Scott Kim aka Supreme Leader aka Scotty aka Kim Taewan
National Appearances	HSNCT: 2012-2016 NHBB: 2014-2015
Program Status	Unknown
School Size	Unknown
NAQT Page	link

Collins Hill High School is a high school in Suwanee, GA. They host a Varsity, JV, and middle school tournament every year.

Collins Hill High School has gone from being a relatively unknown quiz bowl entity to being one of Georgia's best teams. This article outlines a brief history of Collins Hill quiz bowl.

Early History

Collins Hill first appeared at a national tournament in 2000 when they finished 4-6 at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. Between that time and 2011, the team was largely irrelevant. However, at some point during this time period, control of the team was transferred to Collins Hill Alumnus Scott Kim, who is the current coach of the team.

2011-12

The 2011-12 quiz bowl season changed everything. The year began with a 1-4 finish at GATA Fall, followed by a 4-3 finish for the A team at CATT VII. It was during the fall semester that Collins Hill AP Human Geography teacher and part-time quiz bowl recruiter Kevin Kelly was part of a group encouraging Zack Johnson to join the team. Zack was a shy and unassuming youth who had little interest in extracurricular activities when he was introduced by a classmate to Mr. Kim. After being talked into coming to watch the team compete at Centennial ATTACK, an unexpected absence led to him competing in his first ever tournament. Along with team veterans Nancy Chung, James Gadea, and Kate Unsworth, Zack helped the team go 4-3 at ATTACK, and he was one of many on the 5-2 team at the 2012 Georgia AAAAAA Region Tournament at Central Gwinnett. Chung, Gadea, Johnson, and future team captain Arvind Ramachandran formed the Collins Hill team at the 2012 edition of HSNCT. Zack helped the team pull off a narrow 205-200 victory over Springfield by powering the final tossup heard. Overall the team finished 4-6, matching their 2000 HSNCT record. Nancy and James graduated, but Arvind and Zack stuck around to form the core of the team.

2012-13

Despite a disappointing performance at the Gwinnett County Tournament, Zack managed to lead a young team of inexperienced freshmen (for Creekland Middle School didn't have a team at this time) to tie for fifth place at 2012 GATA Fall North. Zack put his love of history and cautious buzzer technique to good use and gradually improved as the year went on. Collins Hill went a respectable 5-5 at Jag Bowl in the JV division. They then went 6-3 at Alpharetta SCOP JV/Novice, including their only win against Chattahoochee A in recent history (Nirav Ilango was not present). Poor bonus conversion frustrated Zack greatly, but an encouraging phone call from Mr Kim afterwards managed to calm him down. Assisted by Arvind's trusty captaining skills and freshman player Katie Torrance's lit knowledge, the team tied for fifth at GATA Winter Open North. This tournament will forever be remembered by Collins Hill players for a surprising 300-295 upset win against a Marist team that featured John Stathis, Maggie Schaeffer, Sebastian Kahf, and Brendan Phillips. Brendan, Sebastian, and Maggie would go on to form a trio that went on a long streak of dashing Collins Hill's chances of tournament victory the following season. The team's problem with bonus conversion continued at the 2nd Annual Blue Devil Tournament where they finished in the bottom part of Group D, in part thanks to 14.2 PPB. While Zack had a decent command of history for a sophomore, Arvind and Mary Nosa contributed points and Katie was building upon her knowledge of the literature canon, the lack of a science player or an experienced specialist made it hard for the Hill to come up with wins against the top teams in the state. Collins Hill JV finished third at JV State and the Varsity team tied for seventh at their respective state tournament. Katie Elliot and Manav Patel joined the team for the 2013 HSNCT in Atlanta. Zack put up 52.09 PP20TUH and was named a rising sophomore, but the team stalled out at 5-5. An abysmal 11.71 PPB kept the Eagles from advancing to the playoffs, but they did manage to win Arvind's final game of quiz bowl and send the captain off on a high note. In addition, Mr Kim and former CHHS players Nancy Chung and Will Teich joined with Zack to form "The Chill Alumni (plus Zack)" at the 2013 Larry Munson Hybrid Tournament.

One final note: It was during this time period that Zack came to admire Dorman and adopt their distinctive buzzing technique.

Georgia NASAT team members

• Zack Johnson (2014)