Kings Park

Kings Park High School is a public high school located in Kings Park, New York. KPHS had a trivia team that was disbanded in 2004, but except for some 90s-era RQB packets and an alleged appearance on the 2003 season of The Challenge, there is no evidence of how active this team was. The current incarnation of the Kings Park quiz bowl team (nicknamed "Brainstormers" despite Half Hollow Hills West using the same name) has existed since the 2007-8 school year, and is currently coached by Rob Celeste.

Tournament Attendance

Kings Park's team received most of its recognition through the trivia show The Challenge. In its first appearance on the 2007-8 season, the team managed to get to round 3, only to be stopped by perennial contender (but only on The Challenge) Sachem North, which went on to become Long Island champions. In the 2008-9 season, Kings Park won the Suffolk finals over Half Hollow Hills West by 15 points, only to lose to eventual Tri-State champion Great Neck South by about the same margin. In the 2009-10 season, Kings Park again made it to the Suffolk finals, only to lose to Smithtown East by a small margin. This was actually a blessing in disguise for the captain, who got incredibly sick the day the taping would have been and definitely wouldn't have liked having to spend that time being curb-stomped by Kellenberg. Kings Park did not get selected for the 2010-1 season.

Kings Park has gotten increasingly more involved in other tournaments. For the 2007-8 school year Kings Park sent two teams to LIFT VII, although only two of the students sent to the tournament were actually on the trivia team because someone in the administration thought it would be unfair to send the Challenge team for some odd reason. They also sent three teams (this time including the actual A team) to Half Hollow Hills West's annual tournament, and although the A team was one of the highest-scoring teams with a 2-2 record in prelims, only the B team got into the playoffs with the 31st seed, getting shut down by Kellenberg A. For 2008-9 there were plans to go to both tournaments again, but scheduling conflicts (notably Hills West's tournament getting moved into Kings Park's midterms week due to a snow day) prevented them, like many other schools, from attending. The 2009-10 team saw both LIFT and the Hills West Invitational again, this time putting both teams into Hills West's playoffs, as well as Chatham's tournament. They also had to survive the unimaginable horror of RQB, the playoffs of which the B team managed to get into with a 5-0 record but the A team did not thanks to a hose-tastic first round and a loss by 3 points in the fourth.

The 2010-11 team has been the most active to date, going to 3 tournaments as of February, going to RQB yet again despite the complaints of the entire A team last year and planning to host a tournament of their own.

Players, Past and Present

Greg Cordts '08

Emily Duffel '08

Bobby Kaminski '09

Robert Pond '10

Evan Goldaper '09

Seth Fichtelberg '09

Andrew Dedonato '10

Jason Chaves '10

Luke Stephan '10

Will Schneider '11

Ishwarya Anathabhotla '11

Ryan Parigoris '11

Shannon Wetzler '12

etc