Gateway Athletic Conference

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The Gateway Athletic Conference (Abbreviated GAC) tournament is a tournament featuring schools from the western edge of the St. Louis Metro Area extending from the towns of St. Charles, Warrenton and Washington. The Conference tournament is usually held in March.

History

The Gateway Athletic Conference tournament was first founded in 2002 with the assistance of Fort Zumwalt West coach Jeremy Gibbs. The first iteration of the tournament featured only four teams [1] Historically, the tournament has been dominated by Francis Howell Central and Fort Zumwalt West High Schools, which have won eight of the nine Conference championships, with the score currently 5-3 in favor of FHC. Attendance at the GAC tournament generally hovers around 6-8 of the 14 teams eligible to attend.

Characteristics

The GAC tournament is usually run on the State question provider and is largely administrated by Jeremy Gibbs. It is organized similarly to most MSHSAA format tournaments. Teams play three preliminary matches at 9:00 A.M., 10:00 A.M., and 11:00 A.M., there is a lunch break between 12:00 P.M. and 1:00 P.M. during which the top teams are seeded, and then those teams play single elimination playoff matches at 1:00 P.M. and 2:00 P.M. The tournament champions win the same plaque which is awarded to the winner of a Gateway Athletic Conference championship in any other sport.

The GAC tournament, like those of most MSHSAA tournaments, gives top scorer awards for the most tossups answered in the preliminary rounds, rather than for the highest PPG.

Interestingly, no team which has won the Conference has won the corresponding MSHSAA District for the years 2006-2009. Francis Howell Central, which won 3 of those 4 GAC competitions, was defeated by Fort Zumwalt West in 2006 and 2009 and by both Zumwalt West and Kirksville in 2008. Fort Zumwalt West, which won the Conference in 2007, was defeated by Kirksville in 2007. This thread was broken in 2010, when Fort Zumwalt West defeated Warrenton 380-120 to win the District title after winning the 2010 Conference title over Francis Howell Central.

Participants

Italics Denote Schools Currently Inactive in the Conference

Results

2009 GAC Tournament

The 2009 Gateway Athletic Conference was won by Francis Howell Central after a finals match against Fort Zumwalt West where FHC came back from a 50 point deficit after the end of the first quarter.

2010 GAC Tournament

The 2010 Gateway Athletic Conference was won by Fort Zumwalt West, which defeated Francis Howell Central by 20 points.

Links are to results located on the Missouri Academic Competition Message Board

Year Champion Runner-up High Scorer
2002 Francis Howell Central Fort Zumwalt South
2003 Francis Howell Central Fort Zumwalt North
2004 Washington High School Fort Zumwalt West
2005 Fort Zumwalt West Francis Howell Central
2006 Francis Howell Central Fort Zumwalt West
2007 Fort Zumwalt West Francis Howell Central Teresa 'Teri' Kilmer, FZW
2008 Francis Howell Central Fort Zumwalt West Becca Genet and Julia Price, FZW
2009 Francis Howell Central Fort Zumwalt West Julia Price, FZW
2010 Fort Zumwalt West Francis Howell Central Blake Hiza, FHC

References