The 1995 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the ninth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the fourth season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA).
Advancement
In each class, the state was divided into 16 areas, termed in Illinois as Sectionals. Each sectional hosted a tournament, the winner of which advanced to the State Championship Tournament. The determination of these geographic boundaries was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office.
Tournament Format
Each round was comprised of 30 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions. The sectional tournaments and State Championship Tournament were all single elimination. Teams were randomly assigned to positions in the bracket without regard for record or performance.
The exception to the single elimination format occurred in the semifinals, where the two semifinal losers played a third place match. The top four teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors. The trophies were of the design smaller than that of the athletic trophies given out by the IHSA.
CLASS A
The Class A State Championship Tournament was held at Carlinville High School. This would be the second of three years in which Carlinville would host the Class A tournament, and would be the tournamennt's last home before reuniting with the Class AA tournament in Peoria in 1997.
One Sectional Champion did not attend this tournament. Princeton High School was thus given a bye to the quarterfinals.
Octafinals
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third Place
Finals
CLASS AA
The Class AA State Championship Tournament was held at St. Charles High School in St. Charles. This would mark the only time that the tournament would be held in the Chicago area, and the last time the tournament would not be held in Peoria.
Octafinals
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third Place
Finals
Notes
- Winnebago joined Quincy and IMSA as only the third team to win a second state title. It was also the second for their coach, Karen Niemeier.
- Latin's second place finish gave them four top-4 finishes in as many tournaments. That streak would end next year, making this the last top four finish for their coach, Rob Grierson. He would retire from coaching after the 1996 tournament.
- Richwoods won the State Championship Tournament in their first appearance, they would be the last non-Chicagoland team to claim the Class AA title until Auburn in 2008.
- Under rookie head coach David Reinstein, the Trevians had their best finish yet. The next time they would get to the Championship Match would be 2007. New Trier had some chances to win a very evenly played Final, but near the end of the match answered Bathyscape instead of Bathysphere and gave the length of the semimajor axis of an ellipse instead of the major axis.
- While none of them won the State Championship, the Central Suburban League had a banner tournament, placing three teams (Highland Park, Maine East, & New Trier) in the quarterfinals and two in the top 4. This is the only instance of one conference so dominating in a single tournament.
- Marengo's 23 points in their quarterfinal game is an all-time record for fewest points scored by any team in the State Championship Tournament.