Rick Barry Award

2022: Billy Jones

Billy Jones has been a long time coach in the Gwinnett school system and has fielded teams for many events over the years. He represented Mountain View HS at the time of his award. Fun fact: he's been a STAR Teacher over 30 times!

2017: Leila Bass

Leila Bass was a founding member of GATA and was the coach for the Mary Persons HS team. After her retirement, she continued to help read at GATA event all across the state until her passing in 2021. 

2017: MITCH ALDAY

Mitch Alday was the coach at Bainbridge HS and has played the game in Georgia in HS, College, and Open level events. He helped expand the game to many teams in South Georgia. 

2015: Dr. Byron Boyd

Dr. Byron Boyd was the longtime coach of the Savannah Country Day School academic team and member of GATA since its founding. Dr. Boyd was at one time the director of the annual coaches' meeting in Macon and has volunteered his time moderating many GATA events. His advice to all tournament directors: wear sensible shoes. 

2013: Jeff Burns

Jeff Burns was the academic team coach at Ola High School in McDonough, GA. He was also the former coach at Henry County High School and helped establish the Ola team when the school opened. He was also a gracious host for GATA state level events for many years. GATA awarded the Rick Barry Award for his "dedicated and meritorious service to quizbowl in the state of Georgia as coach at Ola High School and as President of the Georgia Academic Team Association from 2010-2012." He is now retired in Florida and is now a full fledged Florida Man (but not like that). 

2012: Adam Silverman

Adam Silverman was a player and coach at Centennial High School. Mr. Silverman was not only one of the premier players in the state and nation, but he also coached his own team, advised other teams, directed tournaments, and is still a vested member of the Georgia quizbowl community. He came achingly close to scoring all the possible points available in a match, missing only two bonus parts of the 20 toss-ups he answered correctly.

2011: J. R. "Rick" Barry

JR “Rick “ Barry was a longtime coach at Brookwood High School in Snellville. Mr. Barry was one of the founders of GATA and ACE Quiz Bowl Camps. He was a longtime GATA board member and former President. As the coach at Brookwood, his BISB tournament became the largest (and oldest) single day high school quizbowl event in the nation. He has been a proponent of quizbowl in Georgia by making the game accessible to all teams at every level. He is now involved with quizbowl back in his homeland of Louisiana.