Coaching Hotline

Among the members are several people who coach–or who have coached–quiz bowl at a variety of levels. PACE has created a coaching hotline for new coaches to tap this experience if they have any problems that crop up, or for any questions that they might have. E-mailing the hotline coaching@pace-nsc.org will send your question to this panel of coaches, and one of the coaches will reply to your question.

Victor Prieto has a PhD in Chemistry from Penn State University. Victor coached the Pennsylvania state All-Star team to a 5th place finish in the 2016 NASAT tournament. Victor has played quiz bowl for 9 years, and during this time, he has staffed many tournaments, written questions for HSAPQ and NAQT, and offered advice to Pennsylvania teams. Victor is currently the president of PACE.

Rebecca Rosenthal teaches middle school Latin at Great Hearts Live Oak in Texas. Rebecca played for Bergen County Academies and Swarthmore College, where she mentored and coached younger teammates. Rebecca is a member of PACE, where she has served as the VP of Communications, and Academic Competition Federation (ACF). In her free time, she enjoys gardening and sewing.

Joshua Rutsky teaches English, Creative Writing, and other courses at Hoover High School in Alabama. Joshua has been teaching for 23 years, and has been coaching quiz bowl for 16 years. He has coached his team to five state titles and two top-25 finishes at HSNCT, including one 10th place finish. Joshua was a founding member of Qwiz, helped create the Alabama Scholars Bowl TV show, and was named the PACE Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador in 2015. Joshua has served several terms as president of ASCA and has been a member of PACE since 2018. Joshua is a Lego enthusiast.

Mike Sorice teaches mathematics at Rantoul Township High School in Illinois. In the past, he coached at Centennial High School in Champaign, IL, for nine years, and coached the Illinois state All Star team for two years, where he won back-to-back NASAT titles. Mike won the 2019 IHSSBCA Tom Durbin Award (Class AA Coach of the Year), and won the 2020 Carper award for his work in collegiate quiz bowl. As a college player, Mike won the 2004 Intercollegiate Collegiate Championship, and finished in the top 5 several other times in both the ICT and ACF Nationals. Mike is very active in writing, directing and staffing tournaments, and estimates that he has moderated 10,000 matches, including several national title matches. Mike has a yellow labrabull, Scoober, who he loves.

Jay Winter teaches math at Northwest High School in Iowa. He began teaching and coaching quiz bowl in Illinois, and founded Iowa Quiz Bowl League when he moved to Iowa in 2014. His teams at Waukee High School won state championships four times. He currently serves as CEO and Treasurer of IQBL and has been a member of PACE since 2020.