For most students at Judge, Ms. Paige Peck is known as the new Algebra 2 teacher helping students work through equations, graphing functions, and preparing for tests. But outside of the classroom she spends a lot of her time in a very different environment, playing in competitive pinball tournaments.
In just a few years, Mr. Peck has gone from casually playing pinball with friends to competing at one of the highest levels of women’s pinball in North America. By winning the Utah championship earlier this year, she qualified for the North American Women’s Pinball Championship, where the best players gathered to compete.
She said her introduction to pinball happened unexpectedly.
“I had a friend who worked at a pinball arcade,” she said. “He and his girlfriend invited me to come play with them, and I had a lot of fun.”
At first, pinball was simply a way to meet people and spend time with friends. At the arcade, she met women involved in a local pinball league, which encouraged her to continue learning the game and eventually compete herself.
“It was kind of like a social thing at first,”she said.
Now, almost five years later, pinball has become a major part of her life. Although the game may appear simple to people who have never played competitively, she explained that high-level pinball requires strategy, focus, and technical skill.
“I think I had a natural inclination to the game,” she said. “But there’s kind of a place where you plateau as a beginner, where you can keep the ball alive, but you don’t necessarily have a lot of technical skills.”
According to Mrs. Peck, every pinball machine is different and requires players to adapt quickly. Different games have their own rules, strategies and scoring systems, which means competitive players constantly have to learn new approaches.
“The game, Godzilla, has different rules than Batman, for example,” Ms. Peck said. “So being able to travel and find different machines at different places just takes time.”
Part of what keeps her invested in pinball is the mental challenge it provides.
“It’s a very satisfying thing for my brain,” she said. “I’ve always been kind of competitive. I used to be a big gamer, so it’s like that but a little more physical.”
Even with the competitive aspect of the sport, she emphasized that the community surrounding pinball is one of the best parts of the experience. S
That sense of community became especially clear during the North American Women’s Championship. For Ms. Peck, the event was intense and exhausting, with competitors playing for nearly 11 hours straight with only short breaks throughout the day. Still, she said the atmosphere remained positive.
“Everyone had a really good attitude, even competitors who probably were expecting to beat me. Everyone was a really good sport.”
Rather than focusing entirely on the results, she said many players simply enjoy being around others who share the same passion. Even at one of the largest competitions she has attended, she noticed how connected the players were.
“It was cool to see that camaraderie even at the highest level of competition,” she said.
Ms. Peck hopes to continue competing and improve her world ranking, but she explained that traveling to tournaments can become expensive. For now, she is balancing those goals with financial realities and her job in the classroom. She remains hopeful that more opportunities could come in the future, recently discussing the possibility of sponsorships which could help cover travel costs and allow her to compete more often.
For now, though, she is focused on both teaching and continuing to grow within the pinball world. She encourages others to try new things and not worry about being good at it.
“A lot of people are nervous, like, ‘Oh, I don’t know how to play. I’m gonna do bad,’” Peck said. “But you just gotta do it.”
Whether she is teaching algebra in the classroom or competing in tournaments, her passion for learning and improving is clear. Her journey shows how an unexpected hobby can quickly become something much bigger.
