IHSA

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The Illinois High School Association governs many sports and activities in Illinois, including Illinois Scholastic Bowl.

History

The IHSA was founded in 1900, and is the second oldest (Wisconsin) state high school athletic/activities governing organization.

The IHSA started sponsoring a Scholastic Bowl State Tournament in 1986-7, with Quincy beating Salem in the first ever Championship Match. In 1991-92, IHSA split into two classes, with Rockridge winning the first Class A (small school) Championship.

Governance

The IHSA claims that it is a private organization, with almost 800 member schools, and a small number of affiliate and approved schools who do not hold full membership.

The highest authority of the IHSA is the Board of Directors. The Board consists of ten principals, one each from the seven geographical districts determined long ago by the IHSA, and three "at-large" positions which are voted statewide and reserved for a woman, an underrepresented ethnic minority, and a private school. The Board also appoints a principal to a non-voting Treasurer position.

The operation of the IHSA is charged to an Executive Director and a team of (currently nine) Assistant Executive Directors (AED). Each assistant executive director is given direct oversight of a number of sports and activities (in addition to other responsibilities). In 2017, Scholastic Bowl was given a new AED, Kraig Garber.

Each sport and activity has its own Advisory Committee (AdCo). The committee is chaired by the sport/activity's respective AED, and includes a representative from each of the IHSA's seven districts. While most of the representatives are head coaches, one is always an athletic or activities director. In sports, one seat is usually reserved for an official. The IHSA Scholastic Bowl AdCo does not have a seat reserved for an official, however, some time after 2010, the chief question editor, and the supervisor of officials for the State Tournament were elevated to voting positions on the AdCo, after being non-voting invitees for many years. The Scholastic Bowl AdCo meets once each year in closed session, usually in late April or early May.

The AdCo meets and debates changes to rules (which govern the game) and terms and conditions (which govern state tournament structure). The committee can vote on changes, which the AED then brings to the Board of Directors. In general, the Board of Directors will rubber stamp the recommendations, but since this is a closed session, it is difficult to determine what happens in these approval meetings. In both 2012 and 2013, the Board of Directors rejected the elimination of language arts questions despite that having been approved by the committee in both years.

While most sports have case manuals to assist coaches and officials to interpret rules published by that sport's respective national federation, the lack of an organization for quiz bowl means non existed for Scholastic Bowl. Around 2002, a Case Manual was assembled by a handful of officials, and is published by the IHSA. The AdCo also oversees changes to that book.

Format

Many of the Advisory Committee rules have to do with match format. In 2012-13, IHSA switched to a bonus format similar to NSC in which bonus parts are read one part at a time, and each bonus has three parts worth ten points each, with bouncebacks. Before that, bonuses were read with all parts at once, teams had 30 seconds to confer, there were a variable number of parts, and bonuses were worth a total of 20 points. The IHSA distribution includes a lot of math, much of which is computational, and some bad miscellaneous subcategories. Teams must have exactly five students to prevent disqualification. If a team does not wear matching tops, then their opponent is given 30 points. All tossups are worth 10 points, with no powers or negs, and bonuses bounceback.

The tournament seeds the top eight teams in each Sectional, plays a single-elimination Regional, plays a round-robin Sectional with head-to-head as the first tiebreaker, and plays pools at State, which has been held in the Peoria Civic Center since 1997.

Questions

Since 2001 the IHSA has hired a secret cabal to write its questions. In 2001 and 2002 the editor was Tom Egan, who proposed that system. From 2003-2017 the editor was Sister John Baricevic.

In 2013 the set contained several plagiarized questions, which was the subject of the IHSA plagiarism scandal. For about a decade prior to 2001, the questions were provided by Answers Plus.

Writers who have admitted their involvement with the IHSA writing process include the following:

Distribution

5/5 Science 5/5 Math 5/5 Social Studies 5/5 Literature and Language Arts 3/3 Fine Arts 1/1 Miscellaneous (including some Agriculture, Family Consumer Science, Drivers Education, Industrial Arts, and Consumer Education)

Top Teams from the IHSA State Championship Tournament

Clicking on the year brings you to the article showing the full results for each year's State Championship Tournament. (NOTE: The information below only goes up to 2009.)

State Championship Results

Years AA Champion AA Second Place A Champion A Second Place
1986-87 Quincy Senior Salem
1987-88 Quincy Senior Wheaton Central
1988-89 IMSA Breese Central
1989-90 IMSA Joliet Catholic Academy
1990-91 Centralia Cary-Grove
1991-92 Hinsdale Central Bradley-Bourbonnais Rockridge Harrisburg
1992-93 Quincy Senior IMSA Winnebago Latin School
1993-94 IMSA Bradley-Bourbonnais Latin School Brimfield
1994-95 Richwoods New Trier Winnebago Latin School
1995-96 IMSA MacArthur Niantic-Harristown Beardstown
1996-97 IMSA Carbondale St. Teresa Byron
1997-98 IMSA Hinsdale Central Latin School St. Teresa
1998-99 IMSA MacArthur University (Normal) PORTA
1999-2000 Stevenson Naperville Central Byron University (Normal)
2000-01 IMSA Wheaton North Warrensburg-Latham Carlinville
2001-02 Wheaton North Hinsdale Central Latin School Carterville
2002-03 Wheaton North Auburn (Rockford) Stillman Valley Carlinville
2003-04 Wheaton North Stevenson Latin School Carterville
2004-05 Stevenson Wheaton North Latin School Eureka
2005-06 Fremd Carbondale Latin School Illinois Valley Central
2006-07 New Trier Wheaton North Lutheran Schools Association (Decatur) Columbia
2007-08 Auburn Stevenson PORTA Byron
2008-09 Carbondale Auburn Latin Litchfield
2009-10 Stevenson Auburn Lisle New Berlin
2010-11 IMSA Auburn Lisle Macomb
2011-12 IMSA Macomb Peoria Christian Chicago Christian
2012-13 IMSA Loyola Peoria Christian Carterville
2013-14 IMSA Stevenson Litchfield Lisle
2014-15 Auburn Hinsdale Central University of Illinois Lab Newman Catholic Central
2015-16 Hinsdale Central Auburn Latin St. Teresa


Three or More Top 4 Finishes

  • 15 - The Latin School of Chicago
  • 10 - Illinois Math & Science Academy
  • 9 - Wheaton North
  • 8 - Auburn
  • 6 - Quincy Senior
  • 5 - New Trier
  • 5 - Carbondale
  • 4 - MacArthur
  • 4 - Carlinville
  • 4 - Winnebago
  • 3 - Joliet Catholic Academy
  • 3 - Streator Township
  • 3 - Hinsdale Central
  • 3 - St. Teresa

Three or More Consecutive Top 4 Finishes

  • 8 - Wheaton North (2001-08)
  • 8 - The Latin School of Chicago (2002-09)
  • 8 - Auburn (2002-09)
  • 4 - The Latin School of Chicago (1992-95)
  • 4 - Illinois Math & Science Academy (1996-2000)
  • 3 - Joliet Catholic Academy (1988-90)
  • 3 - Illinois Math & Science Academy (1992-94)
  • 3 - Winnebago (1993-95)
  • 3 - Streator Township (1998-2000)

NOTE: These last two listings do not include 2012-13 results.

See Also

External Links

IHSA Scholastic Bowl website