Whiz Kid: Evan Knox

Each week, Athens Patch will seek suggestions from readers for individual kids, youth groups, teens, and sports teams that wow us with their accomplishments.

Name: Evan Knox

Age: 15

Grade: 10th

School: Cedar Shoals High School

Accomplishments: Evan Knox began his sophomore year at (CSHS) on Monday. Along with playing trumpet in the marching band, he is on the Academic Quiz Bowl Team. Evan loves history and his favorite study area is the Mideast.

Evan was nominated for a Whiz Kid profile by Cedar Shoals High School Social Studies teacher, Robin Richards, who coaches the CSHS Academic Team. Robin explained Evan's success: "Evan is a quizbowl coach's dream. He had a deep base of knowledge coming in and is willing to better that knowledge and improve on other things to make the team successful."

CSHS sent two teams to the National Academic Quiz Tournaments High School National Championship Tournament in Atlanta on May 27-29, 2011. There were 224 teams from 35 states plus the District of Columbia and Canada. Evan placed 47th out of 1162 players. Evan’s team, Cedar Shoals A, finished 4-6 but had a combined 35 points away from being 7-3 and in the playoffs. Evan’s team final rank was 161st out of 224 and the Cedar Shoals B team was 3-7 and finished 209th out of 224. Evan was the highest scoring freshman player at the NAQT HS National Championships.

Evan is the son of Pam and John Knox. Pam is the Assistant State Climatologist at the Georgia State Climatology Office while John is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at The University of Georgia. Evan is interested in studying architecture when he is older or perhaps pursuing a high school teaching career. is Evan's favorite place to eat in Athens.

Evan "didn't exactly expect" to do as well as he did last May in the national competition. He's looking forward to his team's performance next year and credits Mr. Richards with loads of enthusiasm stating, "Mr. Richards is very intense when it comes to academic team."

The Cedar Shoals Academic Team will be honored by the Clarke County School District Board of Education at their meeting this Thursday, August 11, 2011.

Key to Awesomeness: Mr. Richards summed up Evan's awesomeness: "Going into nationals, I had no idea how he would do. At the end of the event, he was the highest ranked freshman in the nation and the third highest scorer from the teams from Georgia that attended. By the time he graduates, he could very well be a top 20 national player. His accomplishment is getting the Cedar Shoals team noticed among state circles."

We want to hear about amazing youth in Athens and select one each week as the Whiz Kid. Submit your nomination in our comment box below or email the information to rebecca.mccarthy@patch.com. Be sure to include all of the following information:

• Nominator's Name
• Nominator's E-Mail
• Whiz Kid's Name
• Whiz Kid's Age
• Whiz Kid's School
• Whiz Kid's Accomplishment
• Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness (What makes him/her successful? Please include a 150-word description)