IESA Headlines

2012 IESA Scholastic Bowl State Finals to be Held at Peoria Civic Center on Friday, May 4; Tournament to be Webcast

For the first time in the 24 year history of the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) State Scholastic Bowl series, the state finals will be held in Peoria at the Civic Center this Friday (May 4). IESA Scholastic Bowl began in 1988 although a state final was not held the first year. There was one-class competition from 1989-1996, and in 1997 the state series was divided into Class A and Class AA based on school size. This is the 24th year of state series competition in Scholastic Bowl and the 16th year for Class A and Class AA competition.

A total of 16 teams will play in Peoria--eight teams in Class A and eight teams in Class AA. All teams are guaranteed to play at least three matches.

Each class is divided into two pools of four teams. The winners of each pool will meet for the championship of their respective class while the runners-up in each pool will play for 3rd place honors. Assignment to each pool is done by a blind draw. Competition gets under at 1:00 p.m. in both classes. Subsequent matches are scheduled for 2:00 and 3:00. After an hour break for dinner, the third place and championship matches will be played at 5:00 p.m. The awards assembly will begin immediately after the conclusion of the place matches.

The Peoria Civic Center is hosting the IESA state finals for the first time.

The finals were held at Heartland Community College in Normal for the past six years. The move to the Peoria Civic Center has enabled the finals to start earlier on Friday which means the students will be getting home earlier Friday evening. The Civic Center will provide a beautiful venue for the finals and all matches will be conducted in the 4th floor ballroom.

The price of admission is $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for seniors (62 and over) and students (K-8), and is good for the entire tournament. Children younger than kindergarten are admitted free. Fans attending the matches will receive a wristband that is to be worn all day and will be used for entry into the facility throughout the day.

This year, 374 member schools entered the state series in Scholastic Bowl an increase of 11 schools from 2011. Questions used throughout the state series are provided by Questions Galore.

Complete pairings for each state final and the results after the competition on Friday, plus the FanZone, can be found at www.iesa.org. Click on the Scholastic Bowl line in the orange box at the top of the IESA Web Site Home Page.

Here is a look at each of the two 2012 State Final Tournaments:

Class A Tournament

The Knights of Palatine Quest return as the defending champion of Class A. Their roster consists of five 5th graders, one 6th grader, seven 7th graders, and just one 8th grader. They will certainly be looking to repeat as the Class A champion. The other three schools in Pool A are Rockford Keith Country Day, Carthage, and Springfield Our Savior's. This is the first state final appearance for Keith Country Day and Our Savior's while Carthage is making its 3rd trip to state with their last appearance coming in 2008.

The high school team from Rockford Keith Country Day placed third in this year's IHSA Class A scholastic bowl finals.

Pool B in Class A features four teams that all have state final experience.

Peoria Academy has finished 3rd the past two years and will be looking to place once again this year. This will be the Bulldogs' 4th state final appearance. Their first match in Pool B will be against Normal Metcalf who is making their 8th appearance in the state finals. Coach Fred Basolo and the Wildcats will be looking to capture their 4th state championship after taking home first place honors in 2001, 2006, and 2010. Champaign St. Matthew and Beecher City are each making their second state final appearance.

Following are the Class A Tournament pairings:

Class AA Tournament

The Class AA tournament appears to be wide-open as seven of the eight teams that have advanced to the 2012 finals have previously participated in the state finals.

Last year's Class AA state champions, the Panthers of Dunlap Middle School headline the teams in Pool A. The Panthers are making their 6th state finals appearance. In addition to winning the 2011 title, the Panthers also captured first place in 2000. Their roster consists of ten 8th grade students and just two 7th graders. The other three teams in Pool A are Willowbrook Westview Hills, Macomb, and Danville North Ridge. Macomb is undefeated in their previous two trips to the finals having won the championship in 2008 and 2009. Students from those Macomb Jr. High teams have continued their winning ways at the high school level as the Macomb High School scholastic bowl team placed 2nd in this year's IHSA Class AA state tournament. One other team in Pool A can boast about a state championship as well. Danville North Ridge, who is making their fourth overall appearance, took home first place honors in 1998. Willowbrook Westview Hills is participating for the second time in the finals. Their previous appearance was in 2009.

The schools assigned to Pool B in Class AA are Barrington Prairie, New Lenox Martino, Morton JHS, and Rochester. Martino is the only school in Pool B that does not have state final experience. Barrington Prairie captured third place honors in 2002 in their only previous trip to state. This will be Morton's fourth Class AA appearance. The Junior Potters have placed in each of their previous three trips to state having won 1st place in 2001, 2nd place in 2002, and another 2nd place finish in 2006. The Rockets of Rochester have also placed twice in their previous four trips to state, capturing 4th place in 1998 and 2nd place in 2009.

Following are the Class AA Tournament pairings:

For the first time, the lock-out systems that will be used at the IESA state finals will be provided by Slammer Systems. Slammer Systems automatically keeps score, manages time, controls the ring in process, and produces detailed statistic spreadsheets for every match.

In addition, the IESA and Slammer Systems will be experimenting with broadcasting several of the state final matches online including the Class A and AA Championship matches.

Fans can click on one of the links below and register to 'watch' the events.

If you are interested in listening to a match broadcast you need to click the link below. Click Register Now and this will generate a custom link that will allow you to attend the broadcast.

For Class A click on: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/164336010

For Class AA click on: https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/711552951

Note: Not all matches will be broadcast. However, both the Class A and AA Championship matches will be broadcast.