Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador Award

The Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador Award is an annual award presented by the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence to recognize individuals who reflect the ideals of academic competition. The award is formally called the Benjamin Cooper Memorial Quiz Bowl Ambassador Award, but typically goes by the shorter name to contrast it from the Benjamin Cooper Young Ambassador Award.

Origins

As a part of PACE's efforts to offer better recognition in quizbowl, the award was established to encourage the appreciation of and recognize individuals or organizations which, through example, embody the positive aspects of academic competition.

The award is named in honor of Benjamin Cooper, a student at Georgetown Day School who had been named captain of his team prior to his untimely death on August 12, 1997.

Honorees

1998

Benjamin Cooper (received on his behalf by Susan Ikenberry), Georgetown Day School, Washington D.C.

The members of the PACE committee hereby honor and confer the first Quiz Bowl Ambassador Award to team advisor Sue Ikenberry and the Georgetown Day School academic team in Ben's honor. The GDS team has had a long history of promoting excellence in quiz bowl competition in the Washington, District of Columbia area and around the country, particularly through its web site.

1999

Joe Hermiller, Bowsher High School, Toledo, Ohio

He has run Toledo area quiz bowl for over 20 years. He is not able to walk well and move so he does not travel with his team even to local tournaments. He has always put the enjoyment of the game for the students as as goal. He cares a great deal about how the kids enjoy the game. He is a person dedicated to quiz bowl he has given as much as he can for the game.

2000

co-recipients as representatives of Academic Competition Enterprises:

• J.R. Barry, Brookwood High School, Snellville, Georgia
  
• James Garrick, Paul Dorman High School, Roebuck, South Carolina
  
• Hodges Lewis, Irmo High School, Columbia, South Carolina
  

... for their contributions as Academic Competitions Enterprises to promote excellence in high school academic competition throughout the southeast and the nation. Individually, these three advisors have been responsible for the participation of thousands of high school students in quiz bowl competition in their respective home states through the running of academic competitions on their campuses. Together, they have collaborated to organize a summer quiz bowl retreat at Furman University, where many of the brightest high school students and their advisors learn about the “tricks of the game” in a collegial environment.

2001

• Robert C. Grierson, Editor of Scholastic Visions, Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association

...for his service as founder and editor for Scholastic Visions the official newsletter for the IHSSBCA. Under his tenure as the treasurer of IHSSBCA and editor, Scholastic Visions has increased the visibility of academic quiz competitions in the state of Illinois and beyond. This network has been vital for the continued growth, success, and enjoyment of quiz bowl at both the high school and college levels.

2002

• Douglas A. Tyson, Benjamin Banneker High School, Washington, D.C.

...for his involvement with encouraging students in the Washington metro area. An acclaimed educator involved in science education, Mr. Tyson has increased the popularity of academic competition in the Washington DC area.

• It's Academic

...presented to the family of producer Susan Altman for their contribution in producing "It's Academic" television programs nationally. Their effort over the last four decades has been seminal to the popularity of high school quiz programs throughout the country.

2003

Carolyn Hawkins, Cookeville High School, Cookeville, Tennessee

for her service in promoting high school academic competition in the state of Tennessee and nationally. Mrs. Hawkins, advisor to the Cookeville Academic Team, also serves as one of four regional liaisons and the Calendar Coordinator for the Tennessee Academic Coaches Association.

2004

Paul Cain, Ysleta High School, El Paso, Texas

for his service to developing and promoting quiz bowl in El Paso, Texas while serving as a role model in education.

2005

Sue Korosa, Copley High School, Copley, Ohio

...for her dedication and support for academic excellence as shown through building a championship program at Copley and creating a statewide academic team association (Ohio Academic Competitions or OAC).

2006

Bob Weiser, Solon High School, Solon, Ohio

in recognition of his efforts to promote high school quiz bowl competition (particularly the tossup/bonus/NAQT format and pyramidal-style questions) in Ohio, both on his own and through his high school tournament at Solon.

Dr. John Barnes, Maggie Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies, Richmond, Virginia

in recognition of his leadership and mentoring efforts to help produce the student-run Governor's School Academic Competition (GSAC) tournament and his outreach efforts to promote quiz bowl competition in central Virginia.

2007

Julie Gittings, State College Area High School, State College, Pennsylvania

in recognition of her years of mentoring players of high school quiz bowl and as an ambassador to the game over a history spanning more than three decades.

2008

Matt Knupp, Russell High School, Russell, Kentucky

Award revoked on Feb. 25, 2009.

2009

Eric Huff, Dorman High School, Roebuck, South Carolina

for his efforts in supporting and improving academic competition in the Southeast, particularly by consistently providing excellent opportunities for academic competition in the region, teaching and mentoring quizbowl players both as coach of Dorman and through the ACE camps, helping to shape the direction of the ACE camps, and serving as a model of sportsmanship in the game.

2010

• Robert Hentzel, National Academic Quiz Tournaments

for his dedication to popularizing pyramidal questions in high school quizbowl in new regions around the United States.

2011

• Matt Weiner, Virgnia Commonwealth University and HSAPQ

for his efforts in supporting and improving academic competition in the Mid-Atlantic, for his role in the founding and ongoing administration of High School Academic Pyramid Questions, for his role in the improvement of the VHSL state series, for his organization of excellent tournaments and practices for the development of the Richmond-area circuit.

2012

• David Riley, Loyola Academy, Wilmette, Illinois and Linda Greene, Auburn High School, Rockford, Illinois

for their work with the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association (IHSSBCA) in coaching state teams and hosting quality tournaments across the state of Illinois, leading to increased participation on high quality questions and the rise of nationally competitive teams in Illinois.

2013

• Chris Chiego, University of California, San Diego and Dwight Wynne, University of California, Irvine

For their work organizing many quizbowl tournaments at their respective universities, for their work establishing the socalquizbowl.org website as an informational and organizational resource for the Southern California quizbowl circuit, for persistently reaching out to competitors in Academic League and other academic competitions and introducing them to quizbowl, and for establishing a network of high school coaches and players to continue their work after their departure from quizbowl

2014

• Jeff Hoppes, National Academic Quiz Tournaments

For his work in expanding quiz bowl in Northern California, for spearheading middle school quiz bowl nationwide, and for raising the professional standards of the community

2015

• Josh Rutsky, Hoover High School, Hoover, Alabama

for his efforts in spreading pyramidal quizbowl in Alabama, including spearheading the transition of the ASCA state championship to a pyramidal format, as well as his enduring willingness to help out new teams and coaches in need of advice.

2016

• Sheryl and Michael Cvijanovich, Fargo, North Dakota

for their selfless and generous role in the quizbowl community, granting buzzer sets to teams that need them, and that may not be able to participate in this activity without them. The world of high school quizbowl would look very different if not for their efforts.

2017

• Fred Morlan, University of Kentucky

for his work on HSQB Rank, assisting coaches and tournament directors in West Virginia and Kentucky, and spreading better quiz bowl practices nationwide. In short, for being Fred Morlan.

2018

• Chad Kubicek, NAQT

for his work as tournament-hosting contact for NAQT, promoting the spread of quiz bowl across the country.

2019

• Matt Albert, Justin Sharp, and Paul Villaluz of the Las Vegas Quiz Bowl Alliance

for their work starting a pyramidal quiz bowl circuit in the Las Vegas area.

2020

• Chris Johnson, Itawamba Agricultural High School, Fulton, Mississippi

for his admirable work expanding high school quizbowl in the area, both through outreach to local schools to create and develop new teams, and through hosting high quality, pyramidal events and encouraging other local hosts to do the same.

2021

• Ben Herman, co-founder of Greater Pennsylvania Quiz Bowl (GPQB)

for his longtime dedication to outreach in Pennsylvania, especially his support of many first-time hosts of competitions in Pennsylvania and his work increasing the profile of quizbowl via the GPQB blog.

2022

• Kristin Strey, founder of the Scholastic Community Outreach Program SCOP

for her tireless commitment to outreach and resource creation to make the game of quizbowl more accessible for new coaches, players, writers, and everyone in between.

External Links

• About the Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador Award on the PACE website