Bill Tressler
| Bill Tressler | |
| Noted subjects | Game Shows |
| Past colleges | Dickinson (1993-1997), Carnegie Mellon (1997-1999), Delaware (1999-2006) |
| High school | Shikellamy, Pa (1989-1993)
Sanford School coach (2000-2002) Wilmington Charter coach (2002-2010) |
| Stats | HDWhite • NAQT |
William "Bill" Tressler is an NAQT writer who was the coach of Wilmington Charter's Academic Bowl team from 2002 to 2010.
High School
Shikellamy high school did not have a quizbowl team, so Bill had to settle for speech and debate.
His sophomore year, WNEP-TV (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Channel 16) aired the "Scholarship Bowl", a quiz show in tossup/bonus format for sixteen local high schools. Bill was a member of the second place team, losing to Towanda in the final. This program was notable for Bill's saying "shit" under his breath upon earning a neg, and having the microphone catch his utterance.
His junior and senior years, Bill captained a quiz team that won a local French competition at Lock Haven University. All the questions dealt with French history, culture, and language.
College
Bill's quizbowl career began with four years at Dickinson College. Bill attended such tournaments as Penn Bowl V and VI with this team. Dickinson never won more than a few rounds at a tournament, and the team avoided the ACF format. Bill edited and directed two iterations of XBowl at Dickinson, a competition focusing on Generation X trash.
After graduating, Bill spent two years as part of Carnegie Mellon's College Bowl team. Since much of his knowledge was duplicated by A team players, Bill spent most of his time captaining the B team (which the members jokingly referred to as the "Z" team).
Bill finished a second master's degree at the University of Delaware, and has appeared at various tournaments with that team since 2000.
Coaching
After getting a master's, Bill took a job teaching at the Sanford School in Hockessin, Delaware. Sanford's quiz coach gave the job to Bill in Fall 2000. This team did eventually qualify to a few playoff spots at various tournaments, but the team never practiced as students had mandatory sports practices after school.
In Fall 2002, Bill left Sanford and joined Wilmington Charter. Bill presided over the team's growth to over thirty active players, and the winning of 2009 HSNCT and NSC titles. He left Charter in 2010.
NAQT
Bill is the lead editor of NAQT's middle school sets, which started in January 2011 and have now included several national MSNCT events.
Playing
Bill is very good at holding back until he is almost sure of the answer. He regularly posts tossup to neg ratios well above 5 (at Maryland TTGT11 it was 34). He has never been a power player, but has gone 25-40 PPG at a few tournaments.
Bill was among the few coaches who played tournaments. Playing with Charter students, Bill's team finished second at the Maryland site of the 2006 Early Fall Tournament. Bill was also among the players that won Maryland TTGT11 in December 2007. Bill is also seen time to time with University of Delaware teams, many of which include Charter alumni.
Along with Rob Poirier, Alex Gross, and Ian Lenhoff, Bill won CAHLFS, a trash side event at the 2012 HSNCT hosted by Loyola Academy.