Alex Dzurick

Alex Dzurick
Noted subjects	social sciences, Earth sciences, trash
Past colleges	As player: Illinois (2015-2017), Missouri (2008-2012) As coach: Harcum (2019-2021)
High school	South Callaway (2004-2008)
Middle school	As player: South Callaway (2002-2004) As coach: South Callaway (2012-2013), EFIP (2021-present)
Stats	HDWhite • NAQT

Alex Dzurick is the founder of SAGES Quizbowl Questions and currently lives in the Philadelphia area, where he teaches and coaches quizbowl at the French International School of Philadelphia and works as the director of a math learning center. He was the first secretary of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance (from 2008-2015) and served as the Vice President of the Missouri Academic Coaches Association (from 2013-2015). Alex was also a former player from the University of Missouri-Columbia and South Callaway and served as the Academic Quizbowl Coordinator for ACUI Region 11 in 2011. He also served for a year (2012-13) as a coach for the South Callaway Middle School quiz bowl team.

South Callaway (MS 2002-2004; HS 2004-2008)

Alex began his quiz bowl career as a 7th grader serving as the team manager for the 8th grade team at South Callaway Middle School. The next year, he began playing and found success in local events, spurring him to continue playing upon entering high school. Alex began playing as a member of the junior varsity squad, but began playing full-time varsity his freshman year. He began to learn of many tournaments as he became more involved, and was able to convince South Callaway to attend the William Woods Academic Tournament (which he helped to found) and the Warrenton Warrior Classic his senior year.

A four-year varsity player during high school, he posted impressive scores throughout his career, including the third highest points-per-game in the entire state for the 2008 MSHSAA district series (as a senior) and the fourth highest points-per-game in the 2006 MSHSAA Class 3 state championships (as a sophomore).

Outside of MSHSAA competition, Alex competed in the 2006 Missouri Scholars Academy Scholar Bowl, and lost only to a team of scholars led by fellow quizbowler Terin Budine of Savannah. Along with Taylor Smith and Kelson Rosbach of Hallsville and Ravi Fernando of Kirksville, Alex attended the Truman State mirror of Zot Bowl in August 2008.

Team Accomplishments

Dzurick and team compete in the 2006 MSHSAA state championships at Rock Bridge High School.

In 2005, South Callaway lost the championship game of the C3D4 tournament to School of the Osage. However, in 2006, a stronger South Callaway contingent came back to topple Osage and take the championship. The team advanced to MSHSAA state playoffs, where they placed 4th behind Savannah, Westminster Christian Academy and El Dorado Springs. 2007 and 2008 saw a different foe emerge for the team - conference rival Hallsville. In both years, South Callaway failed to top the strength of Hallsville in the C3D4 championships. In 2007, Alex and South Callaway were able to squeeze out a victory over the same Hallsville team to become the inaugural Mid-Missouri conference champions, while Hallsville would edge out the team Alex's senior year. At the Warrenton Warrior Classic, South Callaway earned a 4th place finish, while the team would also earn 2nd to Centralia at the William Woods Academic Tournament.

Individual Accomplishments

Alex earned places on the MSHSAA C3D4 All-District team in 2005, 2006 (11.40 tpg), 2007 (13.75 tpg) and 2008. His impressive 20.2 tossups per game in 2008 was the third-highest reported individual score in the state during that year's district tournament. In 2006, he also earned 4th place on the Class 3 All-State team. In 2007 and 2008, Alex earned places on the Mid-Missouri Conference Tournament team. Finally, Alex earned a 2nd place individual medal at the 2008 Warrenton Warrior Classic.

University of Missouri (Undergrad 2008-2012)

Alex double-majored in Linguistics and Sociology with minors in Philosophy and Geography. He was involved in planning the structure of the newly re-formed University of Missouri Quizbowl Club alongside Charlie Dees. He served as president of the club from 2009-2011 and as treasurer from 2009-2012 as well as serving as co-director of nine of Mizzou's hosted tournaments (three iterations each of MFAT, Tiger Bowl, and the Mort Walker Invitational). In 2011, the club received a MU Chancellor's Excellence Award for Best Small Student Organization.

While at Mizzou, Alex played tournaments as his schedule allowed. His first collegiate event was ACF Winter 2009 at Missouri S&T, and that same spring he attended ACF Regionals and ACF Nationals as well as playing SCT in Division II. The Mizzou squad took a cross-country trip to compete in Cardinal Classic XVIII at Stanford as well. At the 2010 SCT, Alex and Charlie brought home the Division I undergrad trophy and attended that year's ICT. Alex also was a member of the ACF Regionals championship team in 2010. In 2011, due to increasing workloads and commitments, the only tournament Alex was able to play was a mirror of the Minnesota Undergraduate Tournament at Rock Bridge. Playing solo in DI, Alex competed at the SCT in 2012 after directing the previous year's iteration.

University of Illinois (Graduate School 2015-2017)

Alex enrolled at the University of Illinois as a graduate student in the Education Policy, Organization and Leadership program starting in the fall of 2015. He made his UI quizbowl debut at the 2015 Missouri Open site at his alma mater, Missouri, where his team took 2nd to Washington University. Alex did not play again representing Illinois until the 2017 NAQT SCT at Washington University. He graduated in May of 2017.

Other Playing Experience

The first tournament Alex played after undergrad was the 2012 edition of the Missouri Scholars Academy Scholar Bowl, where he represented the administration team and competed against faculty, students and residence hall staff.

In addition, Alex has played several open tournaments in the Midwest:

• 2012 St. Louis Open (academic & trash events)
• 2013 Missouri Open - 5th highest scoring player
• 2014 St. Louis Open (academic: IMSANITY; hybrid: Ottawa Hybrid - T-1st place)
• 2014 Missouri DISCO Open Mirror
• 2015 St. Louis Open (academic: NASAT; trash: TrashMasters shootout)
• 2016 St. Louis Open (trash only: ACRONYM IX - 1st place)
• 2017 St. Louis Open (academic: NASAT; trash: Cottage Bowl - 2nd place)

After moving to the east coast, Alex has also competed in some open events:

• 2018 NSC Side Events: FILM and a sitting of the World Quizzing Championship
• 2018 Penn NASAT Mirror - 2nd place
• 2020 ACRONYM League
• 2020 Buzzword competitions

Jeopardy! and Game Shows

In 2011, Alex was invited to a regional audition for the Jeopardy! College Championship, but was not called to appear on the show. In 2018, he received an invitation to another in-person audition for the standard show, but once again was never called from the contestant pool.

In 2005, Alex and his family took a trip to Orlando and visited the (then-)Disney-MGM Studios theme park. While attending the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - Play It" immersive game experience, Alex won the fastest finger question and was selected to compete in the "hot seat" for the mock game. He ended up winning 32,000 points in the game and received some gifts for participating, although sadly no actual money.

Alex has also won a not-insignificant amount of money playing online trivia games such as HQ, Cash Show, and The Q.

Organizations

Missouri Quizbowl Alliance (2008-present)

Alex was chosen as the inaugural secretary for MOQBA in the fall of 2008 and served in that position until August 2015. MOQBA as a group received the Benjamin Cooper Young Ambassador Award from PACE in 2011 for mentoring and improving the growth of the circuit in Missouri. Alex has staffed and helped prepare for many MOQBA-certified events, including co-directing the 2014 Laker Bowl middle school tournament, and helps to promote events statewide. In 2014 and 2015, Alex co-directed the MOQBA NAQT State Qualifier with Jeffrey Hill. He remains an active MOQBA member despite living in Pennsylvania.

Association of College Unions International (2010-2011)

In March 2010, Alex was appointed Academic Quizbowl Coordinator for ACUI Region 11. As coordinator, Alex was responsible for organizing and TDing the 2011 SCT for the region at Missouri State. He recruited teams and staff, secured space and coordinated with the ACUI regional treasurer. After that year, ACUI subsequently dropped their collaboration with NAQT.

Missouri Academic Coaches Association (2010-2011 and 2012-2015)

At several MACA fall conferences, Alex presented or co-presented informational sessions for coaches. In 2013, Alex was elected to a two-year term as vice president of MACA serving under president Scott Allen of Hallsville. He helped track statistics and award medals for All-State and All-District team qualification during the 2014 and 2015 tournament series, and served as a co-director of the 2014 MACA JV state tournament.

Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association (2015-2017)

In 2016, Alex presented at SchoBowlFest alongside Jacob O'Rourke, helping teams figure out how to plan a season's schedule effectively.

Coaching Career

In 2012-13, Alex was a science teacher at South Callaway Middle School (his alma mater). He was the head coach for the 6th grade quiz bowl team at SCMS. Alex also served as a volunteer assistant coach for the middle school quiz bowl team. (In addition to quiz bowl, Alex also coached middle school track & field and coordinated the middle school spelling bee.) He took his sixth grade team to two elementary tournaments at Tuscumbia in addition to the 2013 Show-Me Conference Elementary Knowledge Bowl.

While serving as an adjunct faculty member at Harcum College in Pennsylvania, Alex initiated efforts to begin a quizbowl team on campus. In 2021, he also founded the middle school quizbowl team at the French International School of Philadelphia.

Writing and Editing

Alex serves as the owner and head editor of SAGES Quizbowl Questions, a company specializing in writing pyramidal elementary and middle school question sets.

Beyond work with SAGES, Alex has also contributed to several other writing efforts, primarily in the areas of science, social sciences, and history.

• 2011 - Olympia HS set - Social Science, Geography, Current Events, Trash
• 2013 - Collegiate Novice 4 - Science, Social Science
• 2014 - ICCS - Science, Social Science, Trash
• 2014 - PADAWAN - Science, Social Science
• 2016 - NHBB sets - Historical Geography, Recent History
• 2017 - EMT - Other Academic, Trash
• 2017-18 - Masonics - Science, Social Science, Current Events, Other
• 2018 - USABB Nationals - Earth Science, Geography
• 2018 - IHO - Women's History
• 2019 - IAC National Science Bee - head editor and writer
• 2020 - Matt Cvijanovich Memorial Tournament - editor: Social Science, Geography, and Current Events
• 2021 - IAC Environmental Science and Ecology Exam - head writer