Upcoming Events

MOQBA Members

Board of Directors

Jacob O'Rourke

President since August 2024

Jacob O'Rourke graduated from Pacific High School in 2010 and only played his senior year of high school, but helped to lead his school to a district championship before graduation. He graduated from Truman State University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Sciences in History. Jacob played quizbowl for four years at Truman and served as the team's Vice President and Tournament Director, directing 9 tournaments while at Truman. His extensive writing and editing experience includes serving as the head editor of the highly acclaimed WHAQ sets. He currently serves as a volunteer assistant coach at Washington High School. Jacob moderates or works in the control room at several St. Louis-area and statewide tournaments and served as MOQBA Secretary from August 2015 until he was elected President in 2024. Email Jacob

Audrey Kierstead

Secretary since August 2024

Audrey Kierstead is a current resident of Columbia, Missouri and works for the Boone County Clerk’s Office. Audrey graduated from Moberly High School in 2017, where the school’s scholar bowl team was coached by her own mom. Her senior year the team was able to win their conference and district tournaments and snag an 8th place finish at SSNCT. Audrey holds a degree in mathematics from Central Methodist University and has completed some graduate coursework in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. While Audrey has not participated in scholar bowl as a player since high school she has continued to staff multiple tournaments a year, including the high school and middle school tournaments at her alma mater, and has held control room responsibilities at a few tournaments.

Email Audrey

Jason Loy

Director of Outreach since September 2016

Jason Loy began playing quiz bowl at Cutter Morning Star High School in Hot Springs, Arkansas, leading the team to three state class AA state championships as well as two NAQT High School National Championship Tournament small school national championships. He played quiz bowl for four years at Harding University, leading them to a third place finish at the 2005 NAQT Division II Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, and co-founded Missouri State University's quiz bowl team while attending graduate school there. Jason currently teaches math at Tuscumbia High School and coaches Tuscumbia's high school and middle school quiz bowl teams. In addition to contributing questions to many middle school, high school, and college tournaments, Jason has directed sixteen high school and middle school tournaments in Arkansas and Missouri. Email Jason

Current Members

Scott Allen

Scott Allen is originally from Kearney, MO (home of Jesse James). After graduation from high school he attended the University of Missouri-Columbia and upon graduation decided to make Boone County his home. His first teaching position was at Cooper County R-IV schools where during his third year of teaching he was asked to co-coach the Quiz Bowl team. He stayed in that role for another 5 years before taking a position as a chemistry teacher at Hallsville. During his second year at Hallsville he was given the head coaching position for the Quiz Bowl team and has continued to coach the team for 11 years. During that time, Hallsville has won 8 conference titles, 6 district championships and competed in 2 NAQT High School National Championship Tournaments along with the inaugural NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament. Scott is also the current president of the Missouri Academic Coaches Association.

Jacob Billingsley

Jacob Billingsley is from Holden, MO, and competed for four years on his high school team. In 2010, he traveled with Holden to the PACE National Scholastics Championship. Jacob joined the University of Missouri team in the fall of 2010 and has since competed at several college tournaments and helped to host Mizzou's high school events. Jacob served as Mizzou's club president from 2011-2013.

Peter Bonello

Peter Bonello is the coach of the St. Pius X Scholar Bowl Team. He played sophomore through senior year at Raytown South High School, where his lone highlight was defeating Josh Malecki's Raytown team at the Longview Scholar Bowl in 1995 for second place at that event. After putting his buzzer away for 11 years, he jumped at the chance to get involved with Scholar Bowl at St. Pius X when he started teaching there in 2006. After serving as Assistant Coach for two years, Peter took over as Head Coach in 2008 and picked the brain of the legendary Mary Lou Johnson on how to rebuild the program. St. Pius X qualified for and attended their first HSNCT in 2012 and has gone to either HSNCT or SSNCT every year since except 2014, with a top finish of 9th in the 2017 Open Division of SSNCT. The previous year that same team clawed their way into the Class 3 State tournament for SPX's first State appearance. Despite leaving St. Pius X in a teaching capacity, Peter continues coaching the team while teaching math at Avila University and Rockhurst University.

Braden Booth

Braden Booth was born and raised in Fair Grove, Missouri. He began playing quizbowl in sixth grade for the Fair Grove Middle School team and got the opportunity to play varsity for Coach Wahlquist starting his Freshman year. By sophomore year, he was captain of the high school team and, along with Christian Allen, led the team to a 7th place finish at the 2021 SSNCT and Class 3 State Title that year. This was followed up by a fourth-place performance at the 2022 SSNCT. His senior year, he led Fair Grove to 1st place finishes at MOQBA Fall, WUHSAC, NAQT Missouri Qualifier, State, and SSNCT. He now plays for the University of Missouri, where he was the top scorer at the 2024 Division II ICT, where the team finished third. He is pursuing his personal training certification and a degree in biochemistry with a minor in Creative Writing.

Kathy Brandon

Kathy Brandon has been the Library Media Specialist at Moberly High School since the 2012-2013 school year. She restarted the scholar bowl program the following year. Kathy is a graduate of El Dorado Springs High School and has university degrees from UM-Rolla (B.S./M.S Chemistry), Lipscomb University (M.A. Religion) and UM-Columbia (M.A. Information Science with initial teacher certification). After working for about 10 years in the world of technical writing and software testing, Kathy moved into education with her school library certification. She hosts MOQBA affiliated tournaments at both the middle and high school level. MHS teams have had success, winning both a conference and district championship in 2017 as well as finishing in 8th place at SSNCT that same year. Those wins were especially dear to Kathy as her daughter Audrey was the captain of the team. She was also named the MACA Class 3 Coach of the Year for 2016-2017. MHS teams have since remained competitive with multiple NCMC conference titles and have also competed at SSNCT in 2018 and at PACE in 2023.

Seth Brummond

Seth Brummond graduated from Bowling Green High School in 2005, captaining the Scholar Bowl team for his junior and senior years, cinching a district championship in 2005. Seth returned to coaching during 2017-2018 at Belton High School, catapulting the team to a district championship from their previous year's record of a single tossup. Seth has since been teaching mathematics and coaching for Lee's Summit West, where he has hosted novice and varsity level tournaments, championed inclusivity in Scholar Bowl, and increased participation and contest hosting around the metro. He has helped Lee's Summit West earn their conference and district championship title in 2023, with a national appearance in 2023.

Julie Burchett

Julie Burchett teaches Experiential Learning, APUSH and also works with students in at-risk situations at Webster Groves High School. She first got involved in Scholar Bowl in 2010 when she received an invite from Lindenwood University to participate in their televised high school academic history competition. The students and Julie did not even know about such a thing as Scholar Bowl at the time but quickly found out and got involved. She has been the head coach since 2010 and her teams have actively participated in tournaments since.

She has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Sociology from Washington University in St. Louis, a Master's degree in Business Administration – Marketing and Management from the Olin School of Business at Washington University and a Master's degree in Teaching – Social Sciences from Webster University.

Webster Groves always has enthusiastic and involved Scholar Bowl members which makes working with them lots of fun for Julie. Webster Groves hosted their first (and hopefully annual) Statesmen Invitational Tournament in 2019.

Jeff Carter

A product of St. Joseph, Jeff graduated from Central High School in 2001, and earned a degree in History from Missouri Western State College. Prior to coaching his first match Jeff had zero experience in the quiz bowl world. He was asked to form the first quiz bowl team in St. Joseph while teaching at Benton High School in 2008, and then two years later founded a second program after moving back to his alma mater. Central won their first district title in 2014, and also advanced to the state tournament. This marked the beginning of 8 consecutive appearances at state placing 4th twice, 3rd once, 2nd three times, and finally winning a State Championship in 2022. Central has attended the HSNCT tournament since 2015. They have finished in the top 50 four times and in 2019, Central placed 31st. Jeff teaches AP American History and sponsors Student Council at Central. He also holds a Master of Science in Education from Baker University, and Master of Arts in American History and Government from Ashland University. Last year, his wife Becky, joined the program as his assistant coach, and their kids, Brett and Lilly, also attend Central.

Matt Chadbourne

Founding President (until January 2010)

Matt Chadbourne is a native of Viburnum, Missouri. While in high school, his team took second place in the Class 2 state tournament in his senior year of 2004, and he was the tournament's top scorer. He also led the team to conference and district championships that season and was a member of three All-Conference and All-District teams. Matt holds bachelor's and master's degrees in applied mathematics from Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly University of Missouri-Rolla) where he played quizbowl on the collegiate level from 2004 to 2011 and was a member of the 14th place team at the 2008 NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament. He is currently enrolled in a graduate program in accounting at Missouri State University. Matt has directed or co-directed a total of sixteen high school tournaments, including the first six editions of the NAQT Missouri Qualifier, and also directed six more college tournaments. He has written questions for numerous tournaments, was formerly a writer for both NAQT and HSAPQ, and is also a former member of PACE. Matt is a founding member of MOQBA and was the organization's first president. Email Matt

Anna Csiki-Fejer

Anna Csiki-Fejer began playing quizbowl while attending Parkway West High School in St. Louis, Missouri. During her time on the team, she served as a captain, competed in various tournaments including the 2021 and 2022 PACE NSCs, and was a panelist on the 2022 PACE NSC Women in Quizbowl Panel. Currently, Anna is a coach for Parkway West and moderator for the College Quizbowl Additional Practice server. She can be found competing in various collegiate tournaments, staffing at the high school and collegiate level, and, ironically, claiming to be retired from quizbowl.

Jon Deering

Jon Deering is from Montgomery City in East Central Missouri. He played high school quiz bowl at Montgomery County R-2 and competed in the 2003 MSHSAA class 3 state tournament, where his team placed second. After graduating from Truman State with a bachelor's in history (May, 2008) and master's in education (December, 2008), Jon began teaching history at Wellsville-Middletown, where he's been coaching quiz bowl since 2012. His W-M teams began attending pyramidal tournaments shortly thereafter and have been a fixture on the circuit ever since. Jon was named Missouri's class 1 coach of the year for the 2014-15 season by the Missouri Academic Coaches Association.

David Dennis

David Dennis graduated from Breckinridge Co. High School in Kentucky, in 1996. He attended Murray State University and has been teaching music and choir for the past 14 years.

Since moving to the Washington School District in 2007, he has been coaching the Brain Bowl team at the Middle School and is now also coaching the High School team, as well as a district-wide Elementary Team.

Logan Durk

Logan Durk is the assistant coach at Hallsville High School.

Alex Dzurick

Founding Secretary (until July 2015)

Alex Dzurick is a founding member of MOQBA and has served the quizbowl community in many roles in Missouri and beyond. Having played for the middle and high school teams at South Callaway, Alex went on to lead the University of Missouri Quizbowl Club from 2008-2012, and briefly played for the University of Illinois Academic Buzzer Team from 2015-2017. Outside of his playing career, he has directed over a dozen tournaments, staffed innumerable others in four states, and served as an officer of both MOQBA (2008-2015) and MACA (2013-2015). He has also coached middle school teams at South Callaway and the French International School of Philadelphia. All along the way, Alex has been the owner of SAGES Quizbowl Questions, where he writes elementary and middle school question sets for events around the country.

Outside of quizbowl, Alex is an educator and currently teaches math and social studies classes at Rohan Woods School in St. Louis County. He has a masters degree in Education Policy from the University of Illinois and a bachelors in Sociology and Linguistics from the University of Missouri. Email Alex

Ganon Evans

Ganon Evans first began playing quiz bowl at Francis Howell High School in St. Charles, Missouri, where he led the team to their first HSNCT appearance. Some of his favorite memories from this time include attending the 2017 and 2018 NASAT as part of Team Missouri and receiving the inaugural edition of the MOQBA Values Award.

From 2018 to 2021, Ganon attended the University of Iowa where he jumpstarted the team and led them to their first ICT appearance since the late 1990's as well as their first ACF Nationals appearance ever. Ganon could be found moderating high school events for the Iowa Quiz Bowl League, hosting tournaments, and writing for sets like WHAQ III, WORKSHOP 2020, and MOQBA Novice.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ganon ran mirrors of IKEA and ACF Winter, and later directed ACF's Nationals Qualifier. Ganon's editing backgrounds include 2019 ACF Fall, 2020 ACF Winter, 2022 ACF Regionals, 2021 NASAT, and 2021 MRNA VACCINE. He head-edited MCMT 2020, which managed to donate over $1,600 to Matt's Buzzers. He currently lives and works in the Kansas City area.

Spencer Fish

Spencer graduated from Liberty High School in 2009, where he was the varsity captain of the Scholar Bowl team during his junior and senior years. He played quizbowl at Washington University in St. Louis, serving as president of WUAT before graduating in 2013 with degrees in chemistry and German. Spencer was a member of MOQBA from 2009 to 2016, resigning due to not being directly involved with MO quizbowl in his post-college years. Spencer has taught chemistry at Liberty North High School since 2014. After the previous coaches left their roles, Spencer became the assistant Scholar Bowl coach at Liberty North in 2021, and then the head coach in 2022. Liberty North hosted its first ever invitational tournament L'NEST in 2024. Spencer happily rejoined MOQBA in 2024, having fully reentered the MO quizbowl community. Spencer enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, reading, and tearing up local trivia nights.

Fred Garvey

Fred Garvey is from Kirksville, Missouri, where he played quizbowl since 7th grade and was part of the team that got third place in the 2021 Class 5 State Championship. Upon graduating in 2021, he went to Truman State University, where he helped to revive a dormant quizbowl team and was part of the team that got 16th at the 2023 ICT DII. He has also helped with the writing of SHOW-ME and SHOW-ME MORE. He is currently the vice president of Truman State Quizbowl.

Ted Hall

Mr. Hall has been around quiz bowl activities for 14 years, but only as a reader at local tournaments. In 2014 he began coaching the Lakeland High school team and continues to do so to this date. In 2015 his varsity team consisting of a group of 6 Freshman and Sophomores won District and Sectional matches, to make to the Class 1 State Finals, finishing 6th at state. In 2016 the team expanded to 10 strong, and went again to the state finals in Class 1, achieving the rank of 2nd at state for class 1. Mr. Hall also received the Missouri Class 1 Coach of the Year award in 2016 from the Missouri Academic Coaches Association.

Jeffrey Hill

President from July 2010 to July 2024

Jeffrey Hill is a Kansas City native and 2005 graduate of Liberty High School, where he was a member of Liberty's 2003 and 2005 Class 4 MSHSAA state champion and 2004 runner-up teams. He led the effort to write and edit the questions for Liberty's 2004 and 2005 tournaments. Jeffrey graduated from Missouri S&T (formerly UMR) in May 2009 where he was a member of the 14th place team at the 2008 NAQT ICT.

Jeffrey is a founding member of MOQBA and has served as the organization's president from July 2010 to July 2024. He frequently travels to tournaments throughout the state to serve as a moderator, stat person, adviser, and/or tournament director. Jeffrey has co-directed the NAQT Missouri Qualifier since its third iteration in 2010, (co-)directed all iterations of the MOQBA Fall Championship, and frequently assists other tournament directors with logistics and scheduling.

Jeffrey is a primary developer of the Quizbowl Resource Center Database on hsquizbowl.org and also maintains the Missouri Quizbowl Message Board and the website for the Missouri Academic Coaches Association. Outside of quizbowl, he is a software engineer in the Kansas City area. Email Jeffrey

Kyle Hill

Kyle Hill is a native of Kansas City, Mo., and alumnus of Liberty High School and Truman State University. At Liberty, Kyle led the Blue Jays to a Class 4 state championship in 2003, earning all-state honors thrice. He also edited and helped direct Liberty's varsity and junior varsity tournaments his senior year. At Truman, Kyle competed for the Academic Competition Organization and was on the team which placed fourth in the nation at the 2005 CBI Nationals in Seattle.

Kyle had hoped to become a journalism teacher and scholar bowl coach, but his interest for journalism ended up taking priority. At Truman, he anchored election coverage as news director for campus radio station KTRM. After two stints at a radio station in Northwest Arkansas and spending time in England, Kyle joined the staff of Regional Radio in June 2013 and was named farm director the following April. Between 2014 and 2024 Kyle hosted KRES Scholars Weekly, a 12-week series highlighting quiz bowl teams and contests around KRES' vast broadcast area. The Missouri Department of Agriculture honored Kyle as the Ag Communicator of the Year in December 2015.

Kyle and his wife live in West Central Missouri and are regular fixtures at tournaments throughout the state, eager to help spread the word about high quality quiz bowl throughout outstate Missouri.

Stephanie Hull

Stephanie Hull is a graduate student and instructor at the University of Missouri. She earned her MA from Mizzou in 2013 and is currently pursuing her PhD in philosophy. Stephanie has volunteered at quizbowl tournaments in Mid-Missouri since 2012.

Malia Jolly

Malia Jolly is from Pike County, Missouri where she graduated from Clopton High School in 1998. She attended Truman State University and graduated summa cum laude in 2002 with a BA in History and a minor in Spanish. She finished her teaching certification through Hannibal La-Grange College and accepted a position as Spanish teacher at Louisiana High School in the fall of 2003, a position she has remained in since. In 2007 she completed her Master's degree in Educational Administration through William Woods University. Malia began coaching the Quizbowl team at Louisiana in 2007.

Ryan Kaden

Ryan Kaden became the high school scholar bowl coach at his alma mater, Schuyler R-1, in the 2014-15 school year. In those first years, the Rams regularly fielded squads of 4-6 players. The program has grown significantly since those early, lean years. Now, the Rams regularly roster fifteen or more players and have begun to experience more success. In 2022-23, the Rams won the Lewis & Clark Conference, won class 2, district 7, and advanced to state. They went 3-1 and took home third place. In 2023-24, the Rams repeated as conference and district champions but fell short of returning to Columbia.

Mike Kopec

Mike Kopec is a seventh grade world geography teacher, high school and junior high Scholar Bowl coach, and Activities Director for the Cole R-V School District in Eugene. Mike has been at Eugene since the 2015-16 school year and began coaching Eugene's high school Scholar Bowl team in the fall of 2018. Since that time, the Eagles have won three Show-Me Conference championships, two district championships, and finished in second place in MSHSAA Class 2 in 2022. Eugene is very active on the Scholar Bowl circuit, frequently hosting midweek quads and participating in numerous tournaments, including the NAQT SSNCT in 2022.

Ginger Luetkemeyer

Ginger Luetkemeyer is a Spanish and social studies instructor at Calvary Lutheran High School in Jefferson City. She helped start the Scholar Bowl team at Calvary Lutheran High School in Fall 2013, beginning with four freshmen. With the assistance of other local coaches and the supportive scholar bowl community, the CLHS program has grown to two full teams that compete around the state. Calvary has also been the host site of small local tournaments, hosting the CCAA Conference tournament for two years, moving to the NAQT two-half format in 2017. Calvary has participated in the MSHSAA District tournament every year, and were blessed to finish as Class 2A State Champions in 2016. Calvary also competed at the PACE National Tournament in Chicago in 2016.

(Ancient history: She played on Roger Stephens' first Scholar Bowl team at Richland High School.)

Josh Malecki

Josh Malecki was first introduced to Scholar Bowl by his Sophomore history teacher after failed attempts at a basketball and track career. His Raytown High School team won their Districts his junior and senior year, and finished 2nd at State his senior year to a strong NKC team. Josh played College Bowl his first two years at the University of Central Missouri, representing the History Department (UCM does not have a set team). When he was hired in 2000 at the Fort Osage School District, he assisted the coach at Osage Trail Middle School for 2 seasons, before becoming the full time coach in 2003. He coached the OTMS team for 10 seasons, winning the Eastern Jackson end-of-season middle school championship in 2009. When he transferred to Fort Osage High School in 2012, he took over a team that was led by the members of that 2009 championship team. They qualified for Nationals that season (the first time in Fort Osage history) and played at PACE Nationals in Maryland. When not coaching Scholar Bowl and hosting as many tournaments as he can, Josh teaches 9th grade Recent American History, Sociology, UMKC Dual Credit Early and Recent American History and UMKC Dual Credit Western Civilization.

Lisa McClary

Lisa grew up in central Ohio and attended Ohio University. She's been teaching Geography, Economics, History of Popular Music, and other social studies topics for over 10 years. Lisa got involved in Quiz Bowl when her son, Steven, was recruited to play on Boonville LSE's middle school team. She ended up coaching the LSE team and, when she got the job at Columbia Independent in 2015, started their 6-8 grade quiz bowl program. With the help of several coaches in this alliance, Lisa expanded CIS's program and now coaches all of the CIS teams, 6-12, with Steven helping out at practices and tournaments. The CIS Middle School team has taken 2nd in state two years in a row and has attended two NAQT Nationals tournaments, but she's perhaps most proud that Steven wants to be a history teacher--and quiz bowl coach.

Michael McDonald

Michael McDonald is the coach of the Eureka High School Quiz Bowl team, which hosted the first Eureka Kickoff Tournament in October 2016.

Michael Menkhus

Michael Menkhus played quizbowl for four years at Oakville High School in St. Louis, graduating in 2014. Over that span, Oakville was a strong competitor at many pyramidal tournaments across the state and won four straight district championships. After graduating from Oakville, Michael attended Truman State University and Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, obtaining Bachelors degrees in Economics and Mathematics and Masters of Sports Law and Business degrees, respectively. Michael eventually made his way back to Missouri after accepting a position at a financial company in the Kansas City area. This prompted Michael to get involved on the Missouri quizbowl circuit again, albeit this time as a staffer and moderator.

Paul Nelson

Former President (January-June 2010)

Paul Nelson began his quiz bowl career at Cuba High School, where he became the first player in Missouri history to be a member of four state championship teams (1995-'98) and was a perennial All-State player. As a high school player, Paul's teams made the playoffs at two national tournaments and he was a member of the 1998 Missouri team at the National Tournament of Academic Excellence at Disney World. Paul then played four years for University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T), earning a berth at the 2001 NAQT Division II ICT in St. Louis. Paul joined NAQT as a writer in 2004 and organized Missouri NAQT tournaments from 2005 to 2010, including serving as tournament director for NAQT's Region 11 Sectional tournament in 2010.

Paul served as MOQBA's second president from January to June 2010 and coached Missouri's inaugural all-star team at PACE's NASAT tournament the same year. He continues to moderate quiz bowl events across the United States. Email Paul

Angie Odom

Angie Odom is a mathematics teacher from Kickapoo High School. She teaches many of the dual credit classes in mathematics at Kickapoo including AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, and Discrete Math 2. Additionally, she is an adjunct faculty member at Drury University. Angie received her BA from Drury in Psychology and worked in Washington, DC (in politics) until realizing she wanted to go back to school to become a teacher. After returning to school and earning a degree in mathematics education and an MS in Mathematics, she received a job offer from Kickapoo in 2004.

After taking over Scholar Bowl at Kickapoo in 2014, Angie started working on building the Kickapoo Scholar Bowl team and participating in NAQT style tournaments. The first year her team was runner-up in districts, but a short four years later, Kickapoo finished third place in the MSHSAA Class 4 State Scholar Bowl Championships. Additionally, this is the first year she is the middle school Scholar Bowl Director for Springfield Public Schools.

Angie is a member of MENSA, a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, PTSA, NEA and Mathematics Association of America. Her hobbies include book club, trivia nights, the Kansas City Chiefs and spending time with her two young children and family.

Sandy Olive

Sandy Olive started Lindbergh High School's quiz bowl team in 2021 after appearing on Jeopardy. She felt the kids at her school deserved the opportunity to learn how much fun competitive knowledge was. After just three short years of competing, her team won the Class 6 State Championship, and Sandy couldn't be prouder of them.

Sean Phillips

Sean Phillips was born on March 24, 1982. He grew up in Boonville, Missouri, and was part of two district championship teams in 1998 and 2000, winning the MSHSAA 3A title in 2000. That year he also was the top player in the MRVC Conference, the district, and set what at that time was a record in 3A individual performance at state. Upon matriculating to Washington University in St. Louis, where while still competing in academic competitions, he began participating in trash events placing in the top 10 individually at TRASHionals in 2001. He wrote his first (and to date only) tournament in 2003 and wrote for PACE NSC in 2003 and 2004. He co-wrote or helped run every WUHSAC from 2002 until 2018 and has been privileged to have been part of five national championships hosted by WUSTL where he was the team's vice-president from 2002-2004. Sean directed at least one and up to five events per season from 2009 until 2021. He is a 2007 graduate of the Saint Louis University School of Law.

Jason Pounds

Jason Pounds is a graduate of Houston High School, where he now teaches Social Studies. He has been the High School Scholar Bowl coach since 2013, making the state tournament in 2016. He started the Houston Middle School program in 2016. Houston hosts multiple tournaments every year.

Donal Ryan

Donal Ryan started Quizbowl his last year of middle school in Kirksville, Missouri. He played Quizbowl all four years at Kirksville High School and is currently the president of the Quizbowl team at Truman State University. He was a substitute for Missouri B for NASAT 2021. Most recently, he and his friend Fred led Truman State to an appearance in Division II of the 2023 ICT. He has moderated some tournaments and is looking forward to modding more in the future. He wants to try and get his alma mater of Kirksville High School to attend more. He also is interested in getting teams in Northeastern Missouri that mainly play NAQT to go to tournaments that run on quality housewrite sets.

Max Ryle

Max Ryle is a 2018 graduate of Cuba High School, where he played quizbowl all 4 years under the legendary Gary Durbin. During his HS career, Cuba won 3 GVC titles, 2 District titles, and appeared at MSHSAA State his junior and senior year, taking 4th both times, with Max being named a state All-Star both years. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 2022 with a degree in Secondary Social Studies Education. Max was a member of Mizzou's Quizbowl club, serving as Vice-President from 2019-2021, and acting President in 2021. He currently teaches Social Studies and is the Head Scholar Bowl Coach at Fulton High School.

Dale Schenewerk

Dale Schenewerk graduated from Kirksville High School (2006) and Westminster College (2010) and took a last-minute opening at Mexico High School to teach mathematics in the summer of 2010. Since then, Dale has taught mathematics while reviving the once prominent Mexico High School Quiz Bowl team. Dale has been the head coach for Mexico High School since 2012, and hosted several duos, triads and quads before bringing the Bulldog Regional Interscholastic Competition to Mexico in 2016. The highlight of his coaching career thus far came in the spring of 2019, when the Mexico High School Quiz Bowl team took home its first district title.

Alex Smith

Alex Smith grew up in Godfrey, IL, where he graduated from Marquette Catholic High School in 2009. There he played scholar bowl for four years, and he was the captain of the varsity team his senior year when he was also acknowledged as a member of the all-state class A team. While in high school, Alex also participated in WYSE, placing third at state in chemistry division 300 in 2008 and first at state in chemistry in 2009. Alex attended Missouri S&T where he was the president of the school's ACO team and majored in mathematics and computer science.

Amy Sternke

Amy Sternke has been teaching French (and formerly English) at Hannibal High School and Hannibal Middle School since 2004. She has a BA in English from Truman State University (2002) and an MSE from Quincy University (2004). The year in between undergrad and grad school, she taught English at a high school in France. She also completed 18 graduate hours in French from the University of New Orleans in 2020 in order to continue teaching dual credit classes. She was first introduced to Quiz Bowl early in her teaching career through the former Hannibal coach Michelle Conrad. She quickly developed a love for working both with the activity and with the students who participate in this activity. She took some time off from the team while her children, both competitive swimmers, were younger in order to attend swim meets, but now that her children are older, she is happy to get back into coaching.

Kevin Stockman

Kevin Stockman was first introduced to quiz bowl when he became a teacher at Orchard Farm, as there was not a quiz bowl team at his high school (St. Charles West HS 1997) nor his college (Missouri State 2001). First serving as an assistant coach in the 2010-2011 season, Kevin became head coach the following season and has since increased Orchard Farm's attendance at high quality quiz bowl tournaments, occasionally making the playoffs. In the Missouri format, his teams have won 3 conference championships, 4 district championships, and placed 4th at MSHSAA State in 2011. Under Kevin's direction, Orchard Farm began hosting its annual tournament in 2013.

Shelley Swoyer

Shelley Swoyer recently retired after coaching the Helias High School quizbowl team for 15 years. Her teams competed all over the state and at several state competitions. Following a six year period during which no Missouri teams attended a pyramidal national championship, Helias attended NAQT HSNCT by invitation of Paul Nelson after getting a special dispensation from MSHSAA to attend, even though the team had never seen a pyramidal question before. Life has gotten much better for quizbowl in Missouri since then, and Shelley is glad to see so many Missouri teams going to national competitions. In addition to eagerly continuing her involvement with quizbowl as part of MOQBA, Shelley's other immediate goal with all of her new freedom is to learn Spanish and travel to Cuba before you can find a McDonald's or Starbucks there.

Patrick Troy

Patrick Troy was introduced to Scholar Bowl at Parkway West High School when he took over a program which had briefly shut down. His first tournament as a coach (Oakville's 2015 SCOP mirror) was the first competitive Quiz Bowl he had ever witnessed or taken part in. Since then, Patrick has focused on creating a welcoming community at West High. The team has since experienced some success culminating with a 2023 Class 6 State Championship.

Michelle Wahlquist

Michelle (Friebe) Wahlquist graduated from West Plains High School ('82) and Southwest Missouri State (now MSU) ('87) with a BS in English Education and a minor in writing, with an emphasis on journalism. Wahlquist taught journalism and Communication Arts at Buffalo, Ozark, Kickapoo, and finished her 33 years in education at Fair Grove High School (retiring in 2024) in the Language Arts department. She became the Scholar Bowl sponsor in 2014 at Fair Grove High School. Fair Grove was the 2021 Class 3 MSHSAA State Champions and had a SSNCT 7th place finish with a 2nd place finish in the Very Small School Division. In 2022 Fair Grove reached the Class 4 Quarterfinal round and finished at SSNCT in 4th place and again 2nd in the Very Small School Division. In 2023, Fair Grove won the Class 4 MSHSAA State Championship and the NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament. In 2024, the Eagles finished the season with a second place finish in the Class 4 State Tournament. Wahlquist was also recognized as MACA’s 2023 Class 4 Coach of the Year. Wahlquist and members of the 2021 and 2023 State Champion teams were inducted into the Fair Grove Alumni Association's Hall of Fame in June 2024.

Scott Walker

Scott Walker graduated from Kickapoo High School in 2005 and received his Bachelor's and Master's from Missouri State University in 2009 and 2017 respectively. In 2011, he began working at Clever High School as an English and Theater Teacher having never heard of quizbowl before then. After reading some questions at some small events, Scott quickly jumped at the chance to coach the team in 2013 when the vacancy came open. Under his coaching, Clever High School began hosting an annual tournament, attending more high quality tournaments around the state, and occasionally winning some trophies to fill the case across from his room.

Felix Wang

Felix Wang is a native of St. Joseph where he played quizbowl for four years at St. Joseph Central. During his time at Central, he played on teams that made top 4 at MSHSAA State for four straight years and HSNCT playoffs for three straight years. After a 31st placement at HSNCT in 2019, Felix went on to play quizbowl at Mizzou where he was instrumental to revitalizing and expanding the team as treasurer in 2021 and as President in 2022. Felix was the tournament director for numerous tournaments held at Mizzou including ACF Fall, SCT and the 14th iteration of MFAT. Alongside Aidan McWilliams, Felix founded the Missouri Quizbowl Student Discord Server which serves as a central hub for quizbowl players in the state. Felix has written for sets like RAFT and WORKSHOP and will graduate from Mizzou in Winter 2023 with dual degrees in English and information technology.

Tim Wellman

Tim Wellman has been involved in Quiz Bowl in the Palmyra School District since 5th grade, eventually working his way up to varsity his freshman year. That same year, 2019, he was thankful to be a part of a group that went on to get third in the state, first in the conference, and accumulate numerous accolades, including first place in the televised WGEM Academic Challenge. Following the unfortunate, pandemic-ridden year of 2020, Tim was elevated to varsity captain in 2021, where over the next two years, he was able to lead an incredible team to two conference championships, a third place state finish, and a second place state finish, placing high and winning a few tournaments in the meantime. Throughout college, Tim helped read for hometown tournaments, including Palmyra's very own PAWS, as well as assisting tournaments in the southwest region of the state. Tim is now taking over the coaching role for the middle school team in Palmyra, following his hiring as a high school math teacher!

Christina Whelehon

Christina (Carter) Whelehon is originally from Lebanon, MO. While in high school, she served two years as varsity captain of the quiz bowl team and competed in Academic Quiz Bowl all four years. She graduated from Lebanon High School in 2002. Christina graduated from Truman State University in Kirksville, MO in 2006 with a Bachelors of Arts in English and Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO in 2010 with a Masters of Arts In Teaching- Secondary Education. She is currently working toward a Master of Library Sciences degree from Mizzou. Christina founded the Oakville High School Academic Quiz Bowl team in 2009, and served as head coach until 2016. She has led her team to qualify for both NAQT Nationals and PACE Nationals, and her team placed third at Class 4 MSHSAA State Scholar Bowl in 2013. Christina was awarded Missouri Quiz Bowl Coach of the Year in 2015. Christina currently teaches English and Journalism at Oakville Middle School.

Tara Winn

Tara Winn has been the Pilot Grove High School Scholar Bowl coach since 2013 and the elementary scholar bowl coach from 2012-2015 and 2016-2017. As of 2016, Pilot Grove's high school scholar bowl team has won their conference title 24 years in a row and attended several NAQT Small School National Championship Tournaments. Tara graduated from Columbia College with a B.A. in Elementary Education and teaches 5th and 6th grade math and science and 5th grade history.

June Yin

June Yin is a St. Louis native who was introduced to quiz bowl at Ladue Horton Watkins High School, where their aptitude for science and history helped return the Rams to statewide dominance. Some of their fondest memories include the first-ever MOQBA NASAT Workshop, a friendly rivalry with the STL Patriots homeschool, and clinching 4th at the AQBL online nationals in 2021. June remains an active player at Washington University in St. Louis, having won the ACF Division II title in 2023.

Outside of playing, June has been active in tournament hosting and question production since their junior year of high school. They directed several Ladue invitationals and involved themself in many housewrites, serving as science editor for sets such as SHOW-ME, ACF Fall, and SSNCT. They are also a frequent staffer at both Missouri tournaments and NAQT nationals. June is currently pursuing a bachelors' degree in Earth Science at WashU.

Former Members