Alex Dzurick

Alex Dzurick

Noted subjects	social sciences, Earth sciences, trash
Past colleges	Illinois (2015-2017), Missouri (2008-2012)
High school	South Callaway (2004-2008)
Middle school	South Callaway (2002-2004, 2012-2013 [coach])
Stats	HDWhite • NAQT

Alex Dzurick is the founder of SAGES Quizbowl Questions and a recently graduated member of the team at the University of Illinois who currently lives in Philadelphia. 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.

High School Playing Career

A four-year varsity player, he posted impressive scores throughout his high school 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).

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.

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 (Undergraduate Playing Career)

Alex double-majored in Linguistics and Sociology with minors in Philosophy and Geography. He was involved in planning the structure of the University of Missouri Quizbowl Club along with Charlie Dees. He served as president of the club for two years and treasurer for three years.

2008-2009

Alex served as co-tournament director for the first annual Missouri Fall Academic Tournament on November 1, 2008, and the first annual Tiger Bowl on January 24, 2009. During his first year at Mizzou, he attended the ACF Winter tournament at Missouri S&T, NAQT Sectionals Midwest at WUSTL, Cardinal Classic XVIII at Stanford, ACF Regionals at Chicago, and ACF Nationals at WUSTL.

2009-2010

Alex was elected president and treasurer of the 2009-10 Mizzou club. He served as co-TD for the 2009 MFAT and the inaugural Mort Walker Invitational, and served as a moderator at Tiger Bowl II. A tight college schedule prevented him from playing until the 2010 NAQT SCT, where he and Charlie brought home the Division I undergraduate trophy. Alex attended ACF Regionals and helped Mizzou win the tournament. He also attended the NAQT ICT where he earned a personal record number of questions answered. He staffed the 2010 HSNCT to cap off the season, moderating, scorekeeping and assembling question packets on the final day.

2010-2011

Alex was elected treasurer for the 2010-11 year, and also served as interim president since no one was elected for the position. He co-directed the 2010 MFAT and Tiger Bowl III, and staffed WUHSAC, Mort Walker Invitational, and the Tuscumbia middle school tournament. Alex joined MACA as member in 2010 as well. The only tournament that Alex was able to play during this year was a mirror of the Minnesota Undergraduate Tournament at Rock Bridge High School in April. In 2011, the club received a MU Chancellor's Excellence Award for Best Small Student Organization.

2011-2012

Alex continued to serve as treasurer of the club while giving up the presidency to Jacob Billingsley. In addition, he continued to serve as a tournament director and staffer for Mizzou and MOQBA tournaments around the state and as an advocate for small schools in the mid-Missouri area to attend more events. He attended Collegiate Novice at WUSTL, Missiles of October at Rock Bridge and the Region 9 SCT at Illinois State. Alex staffed ACF Fall at Truman State, the 2011 MFAT, the Kewpie Invitational, Mizzou's BARGE mirror, WIT at Rock Bridge, WUHSAC, and the NAQT Missouri Qualifier, and directed Tiger Bowl IV and the 2012 Mort Walker Invitational. In May 2012, Alex graduated from Mizzou.

Coaching Career

In 2012-13, Alex was a science teacher at South Callaway Middle School. 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.

Sixth Grade Results

2013 Tuscumbia Winter Elementary Tournament - 3rd place
2013 Show-Me Conference Elementary Knowledge Bowl - 5th place
2013 Tuscumbia Spring Elementary Tournament - B team 3rd place, A team 5th place

University of Illinois (Graduate School Playing Career)

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.

Organizations

MOQBA

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 and helps to promote events statewide. In 2014 and 2015, Alex co-directed the MOQBA NAQT State Qualifier with Jeffrey Hill. He remains a MOQBA member despite living in Pennsylvania.

ACUI

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.

MACA

Alex was a member of MACA in 2010-11, and rejoined the organization from 2012-2015. 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 for All-State and All-District team qualification during the 2014 and 2015 tournament series.

IHSSBCA

Alex joined IHSSBCA upon moving to Illinois in 2015 and was a member through the spring of 2017. In 2016, he presented at SchoBowlFest alongside Jacob O'Rourke, helping teams figure out how to plan a season's schedule effectively.

Other Playing Experience

The first tournament Alex played after college 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. Alex then played the 2012 St. Louis Open in August alongside Kent Buxton and Will Alexander. At the 2013 Missouri Open, Alex played on a team with a Tuscumbia middle school student and took 9th place in the tournament. Individually, he was the 5th highest scoring player at the tournament. In 2014, Alex played the St. Louis Open tournament, where his teams took 4th place in the academic event and tied for 1st place in the hybrid event. He also played at the Missouri DISCO open mirror in 2014. Before moving to Illinois, Alex competed at the 2015 St. Louis Open on a team with Adam Sperber, Sabrina Fritz and Ikshu Neithalath. In 2016, Alex returned for another iteration of St. Louis Open for the trash event, where he played on the winning team alongside Sean Phillips, Andy Walz and Victoria Cui. Summer 2017 saw Alex compete in yet another St. Louis Open, where his trash team took 2nd place after a close final match.

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.

Contributions

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 - National Science Bee - Earth Science