Our Mission
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The LVQBA was born from a collaboration between Las Vegas parents and educators to further the growth of high quality quiz bowl in Nevada. We believe that quiz bowl students should have the opportunity to play quiz bowl all year long, regardless of their levels of experience. By getting more students to play quiz bowl, we are able to provide students with a competitive and collaborative experience which will enhance both their cognitive and social skills--the very skills that are critical for all students once they become adults.
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How We Make Our Mission Happen
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We at the LVQBA are firm believers in making sure students spend the bulk of their quiz bowl experience playing in matches that follow the national standards for question format and rigor. To ensure we live up to those standards, we partner with National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT), the standard-bearer for national-level, 21st-Century quiz bowl. NAQT provides us with the questions for all of our matches and also allows us to use a select number of our events to send automatic qualifiers to their annual High School National Championship Tournament. No other quiz bowl organization in Nevada provides such a range of opportunities.
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Who We Are
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Matt Albert, LVQBA Co-Founder
Matt Albert is a former quiz bowl player from the state of Illinois who moved to Las Vegas for both his teaching and coaching careers. He was a member of the Lincoln-Way Community High School (New Lenox, IL) Scholastic Bowl team from 1999-2001 and a member of the Lincoln-Way East High School (Frankfort, IL) Scholastic Bowl team from 2001-2003. In 2002 and 2003, Matt was named to the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association Class AA All-Sectional team. He also competed in the Motorola Science Bowl during his senior year. In 2001 and 2003, Matt helped his team reach the Illinois High School Association Scholastic Bowl State Final Tournament.
Matt’s first head coaching position was with Western High School in Las Vegas. In 2014, he brought the team back from a nearly ten-year hiatus, scoring an upset against A-TECH in the first game of the season. In the team’s second season of competition, Matt led them to the Clark County School District Blue Division Championship. He also helped the team qualify for the 2016 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, the first appearance in the history of Western High School. In that same season, Matt was also named the Clark County School District Varsity Quiz Coach of the Year. After leaving Western to help open Doral Academy Red Rock, he started the Dragon quiz bowl program and led the team to three national championship tournament appearances in six years. In 2022, Matt was named the new head coach of the middle school quiz bowl team at The Meadows School. Additionally, he has been selected to moderate at five national championship tournaments (2018 SSNCT, 2019 HSNCT, 2022 SSNCT, 2023 SSNCT, 2023 HSNCT). Matt holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English with a minor in Secondary Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a Master’s Degree in English from DePaul University, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, where he also serves as a part-time instructor in the College of Education. Currently, he teaches 6th grade English at The Meadows School and coaches both their middle school and high school teams. Justin Sharp, Chief Financial Officer
Justin Sharp brings over two decades of quiz bowl experience to the LVQBA as a player, coach, moderator, and league executive. Justin was a four-year member of his high school (Jackson-Milton, North Jackson, OH) quiz bowl team, and he later coached the Lowellville High School (Lowellville, OH) quiz bowl team in the Mahoning County (OH) Quiz Bowl League (MCQBL). After coaching, he served as assistant commissioner of the MCQBL, helping to lead the league’s transition to the NAQT format in 2007.
Justin also has extensive experience as a quiz bowl moderator, having officiated hundreds of matches in both Ohio and Nevada. He has also been a moderator at the national level, having been selected to be a moderator at the 2008 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, and the 2014 NAQT Middle School National Championship Tournament. Justin is a graduate of Youngstown State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. He currently teaches sixth-grade English Language Arts at Brinley Middle School. In addition to his teaching duties, Mr. Sharp is a teacher leader at Brinley, serving as chairperson of the English Language Arts department, as a member of the Brinley Leadership Council, and as a new teacher mentor. Paul Villaluz, Director of Business Development
Paul Villaluz is a former Varsity Quiz player who is dedicated to promoting the sport to today’s students. Paul was a member of five championship teams during his two years in Junior Varsity Quiz competition (Robison Middle School) and four years in Varsity Quiz competition (Eldorado High School). He won the Harvey Dondero Scholarship in 1993 as the league MVP and was an integral part of Eldorado’s four-year Varsity Quiz Championship run from 1989-1993. He also competed in the Kiwanis Bowl for four years with Eldorado HS against the Kiwanis Quiz champions of Southern California. Lastly, he competed with Eldorado HS in the 1991 Panasonic Academic Challenge in Orlando and the 1993 Texaco Star National Tournament in Houston.
Paul assisted the Coronado HS coaching staff in their preparation for the 2008 NAQT HSNCT. He also served as the liaison between the Kiwanis Club and the CCSD for the Varsity Quiz program from 2008 to 2012. Paul holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering, both from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He is currently a Senior Project Manager specializing in Transportation Engineering for the Slater Hanifan Group in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has been able to parlay his experience in quiz bowl into successful appearances on Win Ben Stein’s Money (2001), Million Second Quiz (2013), and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (2016). |