DL Edie Quest
Nickname: Nikki
Contact for Media Inquiry
Years Playing: 5
Ht: 5’8, Wt: 215
Age: 32
Birthday: July 19th, 1984
Birthplace: San Diego
College: Arizona State University
High School: San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts
Favorite Sports Teams: Raiders (Football), Golden State (Basketball)
Full-Time Profession: Jr. IT Project Manager at GKN Aerospace Engine Systems
Hobbies: Playing my Djmbe (African Drum), Guitar, DJing, and building robots and computers
Passions: Teaching kids, women, and minorities about electronics and building computers
Other Sports played: Basketball, and Track & Field
How you got into football: Friend asked me to try out with her, and I fell in love with it. I was training to become an MMA fighter at the time, and I saw football as another great outlet to keep me in shape. When I couldn’t get any fights lined up for my weight class, it quickly became my first love.
Pets: Prince (Pit Bull)/ India (Miniature Pinscher)
Family: Sheila, Jesse, Ebony, Sherai, & Juajun
In Her Own Words:
I was born and raised in San Diego. My grandfather groomed my love for tinkering with electronics and my mother and father for playing music.
I went to San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts from Elementary through High School, and it really blessed me with a well-rounded experience that I’m still benefiting from today. My school encouraged diversity, and we’re able to relate to people from all walks of life, that has helped me personally and professionally. I played the Violin from 6th through 11th grade, but senior year, we needed a second Bassist for a piece we were planning to perform in a competition in Seattle, and so I volunteered to switch instruments.
Because, my school was focused mainly on performing arts, I had to play sports for another school. I played basketball and ran track at Lincoln High School. At the time, I wasn’t necessarily the best athlete, and definitely not the most agile, but always the strongest and I never quit. My biggest regret about my HS career was turning down the wrestling coach that was trying to recruit me, because at the time, I felt that was just a boy’s sport. Really, now I believe it’s something I would have excelled at, and probably could have earned a college scholarship if I really applied myself and worked hard.
I’m the first person in my family to attend college after high school, so senior year was both an exciting and terrifying time all at once. I was admitted to several universities, but decided on Arizona State because it had an outstanding Electrical Engineering program. It was a wonderful university, but my college savings at the time did not account for the extra costs of out of state tuition, and I didn’t wish to take out a massive amount of student loans, so after my sophomore year, I moved back to San Diego.
I started my career working at Best Buy, then after I became certified as a computer tech, I earned my spot as one of the companies’ first Geek Squad female techs. Through diligence, and hard work I quickly earned my place as a team leader, then supervisor of the tech bench. After four years there, I was recruited to join the corporate work force, where I became the personal desktop technician for executives’ at a major Fortune 500 company. I was with that company for six years, and because of my position I was able to do a lot of traveling, to provide support all over the county assisting in large scale IT Projects. I was during that time, I became interested in going back to school, and completing my degree.
Unfortunately, my mother became ill and was diagnosed with colon cancer. I left my position become her full-time caretaker, and through her resilience from surgery and a long chemo treatment, she was able to kick cancers’ butt, and has been free of the disease for over five years now. (Editor’s note: HOORAY!)
During that difficult time, along with my amazing football family in the San Diego Surge, I was lucky to have football as an outlet because it was one of the only things I had to keep me distracted by being able to focus on something else besides what was going on in my personal life. The same year we won the championship in 2012 at Heinz field in one of the most exciting games of my career was the same year she was diagnosed, so football has been with me through it all and I’m so very thankful for my amazing team and league.
When my mom became well enough for me to go back to work, I also went back to school to earn more certifications to help me excel even more at my career. Luckily I’m currently working at a company that believes and invests in its employees, and I’m currently pursuing completing my bachelor’s degree as I also work towards becoming Project Management Professional.
Everything I’ve learned on the field, is directly transferred to the challenges I’ve have to overcome in the workplace and life in general. I’ve learned more about myself playing football, than anything else I’ve ever done. It is a very strategic game, I’ve even compared it to a moving game of chess, and I’m so very blessed to have the opportunity to play, and even be selected to represent my city and country as a member of Team USA. I love how every season is different, and you use the lessons of the previous accomplishments and even failures, as fuel to keep propelling you to become a better athlete.
Right now, I’m overjoyed to also be a part of a startup company, Two35, and we’re teaching kids about electronics and how to build and troubleshoot their own computers, and even become a certified computer tech before they finish high school. In my field, I’m quite often the only woman in IT, as well as usually the only minority and there’s a substantial need to provide and expand opportunities to expose all kids to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) related subjects and career fields, even more so with dealing with actual hardware.
Along with my career choice in IT, playing football is indeed male dominated, but with teams like my San Diego Surge, WFA League, and Team USA, each season we are indeed braking barriers. Just this year a high school girl earned a well-deserved scholarship to play football in college — a feat up until then seemed only like a dream. I dream that seeing girls football played from pee-wee to the pro’s will soon be a normal everyday occurrence, and I am happy to be a part of something that can lay the foundation for generations to come.
