I may have misinterpreted your response, but for
the record:
1) I concede that South Carolina
is the strongest state in high school quiz bowl,
with Maryland probably running a close
second.
2) My original response was to a message where the
sender said, basically, that "high school students don't
know anything". My response is that we do have
excellent teams here, and I stand by that.
3) There
are certainly teams in Illinois that can give the
South Carolina teams a run for their money, if not win
by a large margin. The difference is that the South
Carolina coaches are allowed to compete nationally
throughout the year--Illinois teams are lucky if they can
attend ONE national tournament, and there is currently a
proposal before our state association that would eliminate
that.
4) As for the Midwest in general, I think you're
being a little presumptive. True, we don't often appear
at national tournaments, but that doesn't mean that
we aren't competitive, or worthy of national
competition.
David