IHSA

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 IHSA State Series uses a Regional-Sectional-State format, and in two classes (AA for large schools, A for smaller schools). Schools are assigned, geographically to one of eight sectionals in their class (usually in January). The coaches then meet (usually in mid-February) and seed the top 8 teams in the sectional. Afterwards, the IHSA will place each team in the sectional into one of four regional tournaments, with an effort made to separate the top 8 seeds (1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5), and arranging so that seeds only meet in the Regional finals. Other teams are placed in the single-elimination bracket at random. The Regional tournament is usually held after school on a Monday in early March.

The four regional winners meet at the sectional tournament the next Saturday. The sectional is a four-team round robin. If there is a tie between two teams, it is broken based on head-to-head results, with a three-way tie broken based on the total scores of the teams scored against the other tied teams.

The State Championship Tournament is held on the next Friday at the Peoria Civic Center (since 1997). The winners of the 8 sectionals in each class are randomly assigned to one of two pools of four teams. Each team plays the three other teams in their pool, with the winners of the two pools meeting for the state championship, and the runner-up in each of the pools playing a third place match. Ties in each pool are broken according to the same rulesin the sectional.

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:

Sister John Baricevic (editor, 2003–17)
Tom Egan (editor, 2001–02; writer in some other years)
Jonah Greenthal (2010–12)
Matt Laird (2010–11)
Greg Peterson (2013)
Shawn Pickrell (several years, specifics unknown)
David Reinstein (2012-13; fired for reporting plagiarism in 2013)
Kristin Strey (2011)
Donald Taylor (several years, specifics unknown)
Kelly Tourdot (several years, specifics unknown)
Andrew Ullsperger (several years, specifics unknown)
Matt Weiner (2006–07)

Distribution

7/7 Social Studies (4/4 History, 1/0 or 0/1 Geography, 1/0 or 0/1 Religion, 2/2 Social Sciences)

5/5 Literature (2/2 US Lit, 1/1 Mythology, 2/2 from Language Arts, Brit Lit, World Lit)

4/4 Science (3/3 Bio, Chem, Physics, 1/1 other science, including health and archaeology/paleontology)

4/4 Math (A limit of two computational tossups, which need not be pyramidal)

3/3 Fine Arts (at least 1/1 Visual Arts and 1/1 Music)

1/1 Miscellaneous (including some Agriculture, Sports, Family Consumer Science, Drivers Education, Pop Culture, Industrial Arts, and Consumer Education)

Since 2005, the distribution has changed to increase Social Studies, Literature, and Fine Arts, while reducing Science and Math. Another positive move has been the limits placed on computational math, which used to be as high as 6/6, and could be found in any category.

While the chief editor does not have control over the mandated distribution as shown, the editor has complete discretion over the sub-distribution. For example, geography is listed under "Social Sciences", but is not specifically called for. Thus, the editor could decide to completely exclude geography from the tournament, or could choose to make 2/2 geography for every round of the tournament.

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.

External Links

IHSA Scholastic Bowl website