VHSL Scholastic Bowl

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The Virginia High School League, which governs Virginia public-school participation in extracurricular activities including sports and academic contests, began offering a Scholastic Bowl title in 1998. Due to the complete overhaul of the VHSL's structure and subsequent major changes to the format of the state tournament, which will eliminate the existing three VHSL classes, the first era of VHSL Scholastic Bowl may be considered to have ended with the 2012-2013 year, with a newly organized competition beginning in 2013-2014.

Structure (1998-2013)

From the time of Scholastic Bowl's inception to the end of the 2012-2013 year, the VHSL classified schools into groups A, AA, and AAA based primarily on school size. Many schools played up or down from where their size would dictate in order to be in the same division as geographically nearby opponents. Both Maggie Walker and Thomas Jefferson were required by rule to play in Group AAA in academic activities regardless of school size.

Each district produced two teams to send to regionals. 44 of the 46 districts in VHSL participated in Scholastic Bowl.

Each of the four regional tournaments sent its top two teams to the state championship. The state championship consisted of the top eight teams (in each enrollment class) playing a double-elimination tournament. The state championship was held at Charlottesville High School in 1998 and at William & Mary from 1999 onwards.

Performance in Scholastic Bowl and other academic activities sponsored by VHSL (including debate, and forensics) counts towards a school's standing in the Wachovia Cup in Academics, an overall title awarded to the school with the best performance in all non-athletic VHSL events. There is also a Wachovia Cup for Athletics.

Leadership & Questions

1998-2000

The tournament was first written and directed by Claude Sandy, a retired Academic Decathlon administrator with no prior connection to quizbowl. Tournaments in his purview were noted for recycling questions and having less than 2 literature questions in an average match, most of which are on repetitive pet topics such as Zane Grey and the fact that Leo Tolstoy held the noble rank of "count."

2001-2009

In 2001, Shawn Pickrell took over as Commissioner and chief question writer. He implemented a strategy by which Regionals and States (but not the regular season or Districts) gradually became more pyramidal and the stated subject distribution of the packets was roughly followed.

2010-2013

In 2010, Pickrell resigned and Fred Campbell became the new Commissioner, contracting with HSAPQ to provide the questions. Good quizbowl principles were introduced at all levels of the competition.

VHSL Format

The eccentric format used in VHSL matches consists of a round of fifteen tossups, ten "directed questions" for each team which bounce back, and a concluding phase of fifteen more tossups. Tossups are scored in the normal quizbowl way.

Origin of the format

The format is somewhat based on the format of the Mountain Academic Competition Conference and the Southwest Virginia Academic Conference, two local organizations which ran quizbowl competitions prior to the formation of Scholastic Bowl. The format is not used at any non-Scholastic Bowl events (nearly all independent events in Virginia use standard ACF format).

Notes

As the VHSL is an organization of public schools, such longstanding Virginia programs as St. Christopher's, Collegiate, and St. Anne's have been unable to participate in VHSL tournaments or compete for the state title. Such schools are eligible for the NAQT Virginia Championship.

B teams are not eligible for VHSL participation, despite B teams from various schools often being among the 5-10 best teams in the state.

State Championship Results

Years AAA Champion AAA Second Place AA Champion AA Second Place A Champion A Second Place
1998 Thomas Jefferson Lake Braddock Western Albermarle Blacksburg Radford Middlesex
1999 Thomas Jefferson Maggie Walker Blacksburg Poquoson Radford West Point
2000 Maggie Walker Thomas Jefferson Charlottesville Graham Buffalo Gap Middlesex
2001 Thomas Jefferson Maggie Walker Poquoson Heritage Radford Randolph-Henry
2002 Thomas Jefferson Albemarle Robert E. Lee Blacksburg George Mason Buffalo Gap
2003 Maggie Walker Thomas Jefferson Salem Spotswood George Mason Middlesex
2004 Thomas Jefferson Maggie Walker Robert E. Lee Loudoun Eastern Montgomery George Mason
2005 Thomas Jefferson Maggie Walker Charlottesville Spotswood James Monroe Eastern Montgomery
2006 Thomas Jefferson Ocean Lakes Charlottesville Blacksburg Radford George Mason
2007 Maggie Walker Thomas Jefferson Charlottesville Heritage George Mason Radford
2008 Thomas Jefferson Maggie Walker Charlottesville Cave Spring Radford West Point
2009 Thomas Jefferson Maggie Walker James Monroe Heritage Rappahannock George Mason
2010 Maggie Walker Thomas Jefferson Blacksburg New Kent George Mason Honaker
2011 Maggie Walker Thomas Jefferson Christiansburg Western Albemarle George Mason Nandua
2012 Thomas Jefferson Maggie Walker Cave Spring Christiansburg George Mason Honaker
2013 Thomas Jefferson Maggie Walker New Kent Western Albemarle George Mason Honaker