Peoria Area League

The Peoria Area League or PAL is a league of high school quiz bowl programs in Central Illinois. It is made up of two divisions - Varsity & JV, composed by schools from around Peoria, Woodford, & Tazewell counties of both classes and various athletic conferences.

Founded in 1997, the league historically was one of the more competitive circuits in Illinois scholastic bowl. Where a top finish in the league indicated potential playoff success, especially for Class A teams. IHSSBCA Hall of Fame coach & Robert Grierson Friend of Scholastic Bowl Award recipient, John Rathbun was the league director for many years. Three other PAL coaches have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, Kathleen Brooks-Juergens, Aaron Barrington & Jeff Vallosio. All of whom at some point served in leadership positions in the quiz bowl community.

The league competes over 5 weeks across January & February on Tuesday nights in triangular meets. Culminating in a tournament for the top placing teams. The league has usually recognized the top-10 scoring players in each division. In its earliest years the league was split geographically - a "West" & "East" division with the Illinois River as the boundary.

For many years, the Peoria Area League used house-written question sets composed of 20 toss ups & "IHSA"-style distribution. The league later used Platypus Questions. In the modern era, question sets have become a point of contention despite many members also resisting adapting to contemporary styles of quiz bowl gameplay (ie powers, negs, no rebounds, etc.) Compounding attempts to modernize the league, the geographic size & overlap between athletic conferences has rendered moving to NAQT an unrealistic solution to this issue. Fortunately in the post COVID-era, there has been steady improvement under the leadership of East Peoria coach, Jenny Norman. During the 2023 season, the PAL held its first mirror of question set, resulting in stronger scoring across the board. Since then, the league has used other sets including the SHOW-ME & DART sets, representing a considerable improvement to questions used in years past.

During the COVID-19 2021 season, the Peoria Area League was held over Discord.

Current Members

School	Location	Mascot	County	Enrollment	IHSA Class	Masonic Class	Athletic Conference
Limestone	Bartonville, IL	Rockets	Peoria	856	2A	3A	Mid-Illini
Brimfield	Brimfield, IL	Indians	Peoria	221	1A	1A	Prairieland
Canton	Canton, IL	Little Giants	Peoria	683	2A	2A	Mid-Illini
Dunlap	Dunlap, IL	Eagles	Peoria	1287	2A	3A	Mid-Illini
East Peoria	East Peoria, IL	Raiders	Tazewell	802	2A	2A	Mid-Illini
Elmwood	Elmwood, IL	Trojans	Peoria	204	1A	1A	Prairieland
Farmington	Farmington, IL	Farmers	Peoria	410	1A	2A	Prairieland
Illinois Valley Central	Chillicothe, IL	Grey Ghosts	Peoria	610	2A	2A	Illini-Prairie
Metamora	Metamora, IL	Redbirds	Woodford	974	2A	3A	Mid-Illini
Morton	Morton, IL	Potters	Tazewell	961	2A	3A	Mid-Illini
Pekin	Pekin, IL	Dragons	Tazewell	1800	2A	3A	Mid-Illini
Peoria Christian	Peoria, IL	Chargers	Peoria	220	1A	2A	Inter-County Athletic
Manual Academy	Peoria, IL	Rams	Peoria	618	2A	2A	Big 12
Peoria Notre Dame	Peoria, IL	Irish	Peoria	729	2A	3A	Big 12
Richwoods	Peoria, IL	Knights	Peoria	1301	2A	2A	Big 12
Washington	Washington, IL	Panthers	Tazewell	1369	2A	3A	Mid-Illini

Former Members

Eureka
Galesburg
Peoria High School
Peoria Heights
Princeville
Quest Academy †
Spoon River Valley (London Mills)
Roanoke-Benson
Woodruff †