Atkins

Atkins High School Chess Team Largest Team in North Carolina
and Gaining Strength

The Atkins HS Chess team boasts the largest high school chess team in the state of NC, thanks mostly to the specialized curriculum  concentration of math, science, and technical subjects, but also because of ramped-up efforts of new advisor Scott Plaster, English teacher and Academic Team Coordinator. Now in his third year at Atkins, he has taken the team to second and third place finishes in the state championship. Membership has nearly doubled year-to-year, and the "club" roster has now grown to over 80 students.

"It's a good problem to have when you have to use three separate classrooms just to host your team and club," Plaster said. "Fortunately, I have some help from a local chess expert to assist with some of the coaching. We've also had some very strong student leadership emerge as some of our more experienced players have really stepped up their game."

The team and club meets every Tuesday and Thursday on the upper 500 hall at Atkins immediately after school for an hour. Interested students are still very welcome, said Plaster, including beginners. "We used to have very few, if any females. It says more about chess than anything, but now we have a much larger percentage of female chess players," said Plaster. Players are welcome to attend and be "club" players, but more serious players are vying to make the "team," which travels to tournaments monthly around the region and will compete in the state championship in March. "We definitely have a chance of earning our first state championship this year. I've a number of individual state champions but have never won a state team championship. It certainly would taste really sweet," Plaster added.