Chess Culture in School

In high school I started a chess club and put together a team from scratch.  I coached our adviser and trained the team.  Amazingly, we won the Long Island Scholastic High School League two years in a row.  We beat Chaminade in the finals and came ahead of Great Neck and Jericho.  I received MVP but was always most thrilled when they announced the individual team results over the loud speaker during homeroom.   I was also activity involved in the Amnesty International group and played on the golf team.  It is a big advantage to have chess culture in your school where the administration and parents are supportive of chess and value the game similar to a sport.  I will not get into the debate whether chess is a sport at this time but it was nice to have our own buses to travel to the away matches.  Only after winning did I learn Eric Schiller was an alumni of Paul D Schreiber High School and his team had won about twenty years prior.  

Eric receives some harsh criticism for the amount of chess books he had written many of which were low quality.  However, I think he was a tremendous asset to the chess world through helping educate and promote.  He also filled a niche for simple books for average club players.  I've heard he used to hold tournaments at his home and he would commonly drive friends to tournaments.  I appreciate what he did for chess and place him among other players who liked to write such as Chernev, Keene, Lakdawala, Reinfeld, and Soltis.