William and Mary

College of William & Mary
Location: Williamsburg, VA
Current President or Coach	Kiran Rachamallu
National championships
NAQT Page	link

The College of William & Mary is a public university in Williamsburg, Virginia. William & Mary has been active on the mid-Atlantic circuit since their founding in 2006.

Inside jokes about the W&M team from 12 years ago that only make sense to Matt Morrison, a person who hasn't been involved in quizbowl for 10 years

Founded by Matt Morrison in October of 2006, William & Mary Quizbowl could have theoretically been founded a year earlier by W&M Law student and former Duke Quizbowl President Darren Abernethy but he instead chose to play CBI.

In November 2006, at the first tournament the team attended (some Southern Virginia U. excuse for college quizbowl run on NAQT questions and designed for CBI-only teams), there were notably several Latter Day Saints regulations at the host venue, including a caffeine ban (which was blamed for one of W&M's two losses) and a strict dress code requiring men to shave their beards and not have long hair. Fortunately W&M's team was not kicked out despite consisting of two Jews (one of whom had a thick beard), a Russian, atheist drunkard with long hair, a Catholic gay guy, and the only "acceptable" person in that setting, Matt Morrison. The team earned its best finish to date, 2nd place to SVU's house A team. This was probably due to the weak field, though they did beat Virginia Tech A thoroughly.

Thankfully, the 2007-2008 team appeared to be less of a motley crew and to have better hygiene than the previous year's team. Matt Morrison recruited so many people that it caused an integer overflow, so only a few notable freshmen remained: Mark Guerci (former Maggie Walker captain), offensive tackle Jon Ogden (formerly of GDS), current President Dan Leifer (formerly of GDS), Ellen Speers, Matt Peppe, Matt Tobin (formerly of Bergen County Academies), and Claire Meers. Additionally, George Berry tagged along for some fall tournaments due to his previous inability to form a team at his community college.

With the loss of Matt Morrison to J. Sargeant Reynolds for the fall semester, the entire team amounted to nothing more than a handful of freshmen and sophmores. Actually returning this year were Dan Leifer, Jon Ogden, and Ellen Speers, joined by fellow classmate Alex Kashurba. After a larger than expected turnout from the activities fair recruitment, freshmen attendance eventually dwindled to the usual lackluster numbers. Staying on for the ride were newcomer Annie Adams, Lisa Iverson, Chris "The Asian Guy" Dao (who played on Maggie Walker D for a year), and Bali Gupta (formerly of Thomas Jefferson B). The team attended the Mid-Atlantic ACF Fall at VCU, where the A-team finished 3-8 and the B-team finished with a disappointing 0-11 after seeing many close matches. The team earned its first tournament win at the Reynolds Invitational Open Tournament (RIOT), hosted by J. Sargeant Reynolds. The A-team finished 11-1, beating out UMBC in a thrilling final match, while the B-team, which saw Dan Leifer pick up the neg prize with 42 negs, managed to actually win a game and finished 1-10.

An actual, useful history of the W&M quizbowl program

Please write this.

Rebirth

The William & Mary team underwent a rebirth beginning in the mid-2010s, qualifying for DI ICT in 2015 (coming in 11th place) and 2016 (coming in 23rd) under the leadership of Sean Smiley. This progress continued under James Cole, and in 2017 they began hosting James Blair Bowl.

In 2019, W&M came in 8th place at the DII ICT and fielded a competitive B team at SCT's Virginia Tech site. Their 2019-20 A team (comprised of Logan Feingold, Akshata Pisharody, Christian Moore, and Sadie Britton) came in 3rd place at UNC's EFT mirror and 5th place at the ACF Regionals UNC site.

Additionally in 2019, a new core began being forged. Alex Howe and Kiran Rachamallu formed the basis of the B team which got 2nd place at the 2020 Delta Burke tournament at Virginia Tech (also the last tournament the team attended pre-COVID). Both players were promoted to the A team in the 2021-22 seasons to replace Logan Feingold and Sadie Britton. In 2021-22, the team added talented sophomores Jake Schapiro and Leo Murphy. This team would prove to be one of the strongest in the local undergrad circuit. The team got 2nd in the undergrad division at ACF Winter. In the spring, the team got first in their DII SCT after an intense three-game matchup against George Washington which was ultimately decided by a stunning power on French literature by Leo Murphy. The A team then got 12th at their return to DII ICT.

James Blair Bowl and Hosting

W&M began hosting James Blair Bowl, a high-school-plus difficulty tournament, in 2017. For the first four editions (2017-2020), it was written and edited by members of the team. In March 2021, they co-hosted the DMV Regional Championship online with Johns Hopkins on the Prison Bowl set, and hosted William & Mary Fall on SCOP Novice 11 in November. They planned a grand return to in-person hosting with James Blair Bowl V, run on RAFT III, in April 2022. Scheduling issues, however, resulting in the tournament being hosted the day before Easter, resulted in the tournament was cancelled.

Former Players

• Sean Smiley
• Chris Miller
• Alex Frey
• Jonathan Leidenheimer
• Alex Wallace
• Alex Howe
• Sadie Britton
• Logan Feingold
• Akshata Pisharody
• Christian Moore

Current Players

• Kiran Rachamallu
• Bradley Friedman
• Jake Schapiro
• Leo Murphy

Disclaimers

William & Mary Quizbowl has nothing to do with VHSL States, which has been hosted at the College long before the club was founded. Confusion may arise from the fact that in 2007 three club members were volunteers at States and Matt Morrison was hired as Group A coordinator, notably showing up last-minute wearing jeans and a golf shirt.

Also, the club was not involved at all with William & Mary's CBI program. Nick Hoelker was the only W&M player who played in both CBI and invitational tournaments.