One of Guth’s Quinnipiac teammates feeds him passes as he connects. Again and again.

The team-issued tank top under his powder-blue practice jersey reads, “We > Me,” an ethos that bonds the Bobcats. But it’s also an apt mantra for Guth’s other team — the 49-member student volunteer committee for Quinnipiac University’s Global Asset Management Education (GAME) Forum XIV.

“We take tremendous pride in GAME Forum being an event that’s student-run,” Guth says during a break in his balancing act. He’s the student oversight chair for GAME Forum, a graduate student pouring himself into a prestigious and demanding role for much of the past year. And he’s in his fourth year as a Bobcats reserve, suiting up for a first-place team just 35 miles from his hometown in Brookfield.

A string of injuries has limited his playing time, but Guth’s competitiveness and affable nature endear him to his Bobcats teammates. Away from the court, on Zoom calls and in conference rooms, he is in complete command of the GAME Forum calendar, a point guard running the show with poise and precision.

“I mean, what do you say about this kid? He’s just an incredible person,” says Bobcats coach Tom Pecora. “Anything we’ve asked of him, he’s done. He’s on the dean’s list. And he’s in practice every day, competing and pushing his teammates to improve. No one’s a better teammate.”

Guth’s schedule looks draining to the outside observer. But he lets it be known that he chose this.

“I’m never going to have another opportunity to be in college, run a club, play Division I basketball and earn a master’s degree,” Guth says. “So I always try to take the optimistic route whenever I do have long days.”

This long day is just getting started. Guth is in the shootaround portion of a 2 1/2-hour block of basketball activities, the prelude to a high-intensity practice session for a Bobcats team hunting its first NCAA Tournament berth. Some of Guth’s teammates linger after practice, but he has about 15 minutes to dress and drive to the Mount Carmel Campus, where a 3:30 p.m. lecture on investment and portfolio analysis awaits.

The pace Guth sets hardly surprises his parents, Ann and Kurt Guth. He’s always had a daring streak, a little brother bravado. When Kurt coached older sister Taylor in middle school basketball, it wasn’t enough for Quinn, then a third grader, to watch from the sidelines. He needed to join the layup line.

“He was always the kind of kid who, when he set his mind on something, he really locked in,” says Kurt, who also coached Quinn’s youth teams. “He’s a pretty determined kid.”

But a two-year prep school stint at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, tested Guth’s resolve and shaped his future in unexpected ways. He suffered a torn ACL and endured a grueling rehab. Seasons were upended by the pandemic. He was also elected class president by his peers.

Despite the setbacks, the Guths saw their son blossoming into a leader.

“He would have been fine going straight to college from high school, but he really grew up during that period,” Ann Guth says.

At Quinnipiac, more obstacles cluttered his path yet broadened his network. A second ACL injury, followed soon after by a serious foot injury, landed Guth in a lengthy rehab cycle once again. He befriended hockey players — fellow business majors — and flew to Tampa, Florida, to watch them triumph in the 2023 Frozen Four.

It was also around this time that Guth realized he was playing out of position. Not on the court, but in the classroom. He craved connection, that relationship-building element in business that mirrors team sports. With an assist from former Bobcats coach and Wall Street veteran Baker Dunleavy, Guth switched from an accounting major to an accelerated 3+1 finance student with a minor in accounting and enrolled in the MBA program.

“Enthralled” by his classmates’ involvement in GAME Forum, Guth vowed to join their ranks however he could — always with an eye on holding a leadership position.

Juggling all this responsibility has never been an issue. It’s a point of distinction for an athletic department that posted a collective GPA of 3.61 in the fall semester. “Coaching is easier here because of the caliber of student-athlete we bring in,” Pecora says.

As the sun begins to set on this chilly winter Wednesday, Guth spends the evening in the Arnold Bernard Library prepping for the securities industries essentials (SIE) exam. He needs to pass it for the job he’s lined up in Manhattan just a few blocks from GAME Forum’s host hotel. The seeds were planted last summer thanks to a connection with a former Quinnipiac basketball player Pecora once taught as a middle schooler.

Guth was interning in New York right up until it was time to begin offseason workouts with the Bobcats.

“I've always liked to put more on my plate and then figure it out from there,” Guth says. “Sleeping until 10:30, watching Netflix and then going to class — that was never me. I always liked being super busy and doing things I had a passion for.

“I love the basketball team. I love GAME Forum. I love getting an education. Those are all things I’m excited to get out of bed and start doing.”

Netflix can wait. Quinn Guth has a business world to conquer, one busy Wednesday at a time.