This year’s NSC programming features two panels: Women in Quizbowl, as well as the 7th annual David Riley Coaches Conference!
Women in Quizbowl
WHERE: London room (International Level) of the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
WHEN: 7-9pm on Friday, June 10
Following in the footsteps of the organizers of the first Women in Quizbowl panel at HSNCT in 2019, the 2022 Women in Quizbowl panel has been planned and organized by Alison Yau (Chattahoochee) and Giifti Benti (Carbondale). Topics of discussion will include women in leadership, isolation/ostracism, and ways to improve the non-male experience in high school quizbowl. If you’d like to submit any specific questions or topics to the panel, you may do so here before 5pm on Friday.
2022 Panelists:
Joy An (they/them) is a junior and the captain of the quiz bowl team at Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut. Their passions include physics, poetry, mythology, math, music, and more, and they are a lover of all things fun, fresh, and funky. They are passionate about increasing representation of and advocating for underrepresented identities in quiz bowl, and hope to make their club and the wider community a more welcoming place.
Giifti Benti (she/her) graduated from Carbondale Community High School this May and is planning on attending University of Illinois: Springfield in the fall. She has been involved with quizbowl since her freshman year.
Anna Csiki-Fejer (she/her) is a senior at Parkway West High School in St. Louis, Missouri and co-captain alongside junior Owen Arneson. She is passionate about helping people challenge themselves both in and outside of quizbowl, specializes in science, and has a cat.
Amanda Li (she/her) is a senior at Hunter College High School in New York, New York. She is the vice president and community director of Hunter’s quizbowl team, as well as a writer and editor of Prison Bowl XIV. She runs a mentorship program for novice quizbowl players at Hunter and will be attending Oxford University in the fall.
Alison Yau (she/her) is a senior at Chattahoochee High School in Johns Creek, GA, where she serves as a literature player and team captain! She is eager to learn about ways to address misconduct and improve opportunities for marginalized populations in high school Quizbowl.
David Riley Coaches Conference
WHERE: London room (International Level) of the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
WHEN: 7-9pm on Saturday, June 11
The conference began in 2015 as the PACE Coaches Conference, and has since expanded to become a panel discussion on all facets of the quizbowl community. Topics discussed at past conferences include team and circuit development, conduct and interactions between community members of different ages, scaling up from high school to college quizbowl, and “Making Your Home in Quizbowl.”
The conference is named in honor of David Riley, the former quizbowl coach at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois. He was a tournament host, chair of the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association, question writer, and PACE member. He passed away in 2015 at the age of 59, but his enthusiasm for quizbowl has had a deep and lasting impact on our activity in Illinois and across the country.
Moderator:
Sadie Britton (she/her) has done quizbowl in some capacity since she was in the seventh grade. She is an alumna of the College of William & Mary, where she played quizbowl from 2018-2020, and is currently a graduate student studying higher education administration at the University of Mississippi. Sadie is a member of PACE and this is her second year moderating the David Riley Conference.
2022 Panelists:
Joy An (they/them) is a junior and the captain of the quiz bowl team at Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut. Their passions include physics, poetry, mythology, math, music, and more, and they are a lover of all things fun fresh and funky.
Giifti Benti (she/her) graduated from Carbondale Community High School this May and is planning on attending University of Illinois Springfield in the fall. She has been involved with quizbowl since her freshman year and is excited to see where the game goes in the future.
Gabe Forrest (he/him) is a graduated senior from College Heights Christian in Joplin, Missouri. He started playing quizbowl in middle school and didn’t really commit to it until high school, but became extremely interested and began focusing most of his free time to studying the topics he loved—art and literature. He owes a lot of his current self and drive to learn to quizbowl and hopes to enhance the experience of becoming invested in the game and community for newer players as well.
Antonio Jimenez (he/him) is a former player for the University of Pennsylvania (PA) and Cardinal Spellman (NY). Antonio is a PACE member, local staffer and friend of Greater Pennsylvania Quiz Bowl.
Ashish Kumbhardare (he/him) played quizbowl for 4 years at Henderson High School in West Chester, PA before playing 4 years at Penn State, where he served as Tournament Director his senior year. He won the 2020 Benjamin Cooper Young Ambassador award for outreach to local schools and advising coaches on starting teams. He currently lives in Mt. Laurel, NJ where he works full time and goes to grad school part time at Rowan University.
Jeff Price (he/him) just finished his 25th year of coaching middle school scholastic bowl, and 3rd year as a high school varsity coach. He has won IESA State trophies at each of three stops in his middle school career, with state titles with Barrington Station in 2013 and 2017. His Station & Barrington HS teams win MSNCT & HSNCT titles in 2013 and 2021, respectively.
Catherine Qian (she/her) is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she played on the D2 team and staffed Penn Bowl. She was formerly co-captain of the team at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School (Richmond, VA), where she was a writer for and the tournament director of GSAC XXV. Catherine currently serves as the Secretary of PACE.
Mike Sorice (he/him) has worn most every hat one can wear, over a quizbowl career spanning four decades. Probably best known today as a moderator, Mike is also a long-time tournament director (including PACE NSC 2010 & ’16) and coach (Centennial of Champaign, IL 2012-20 & Team Illinois 2017-18; Tom Durbin AA Coach of the Year, 2019). A 2020 Carper Award recipient, Mike currently teaches mathematics at Rantoul Township High School, informally aids the circuit in Illinois, and pursues such quizbowl interests as: rules and protests, player improvement, and direction and training of officials.
Recordings of both panels will be available following the conclusion of the NSC.