2003 IHSA State Championship Tournament

The 2003 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the seventeenth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the twelfth season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA). For the seventh year, both tournaments were held at the Peoria Civic Center on Saturday, March 22nd.

The tournament was managed by John Rathbun, and equipment furnished by Buzzersystems.com.

Advancement

There was another change to the terms of advancement for teams through the State Series. Teams were assigned to one of eight sectionals within each class. Teams were seeded by the coaches, and teams would be assigned to one of four Regionals within each Sectional. Starting this year, only the winners of the regionals would advance to their respective sectional tournaments. However, the sectional tournaments wer changed to allow for a round robin tournament, instead of the single elimination. The determination of the geographic boundaries of the Sectional was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office.

This change was prompted to prevent more than the regional champions from advancing (which was not done in other team competitions. As a compromise to avoid returning to the "long travel and only one match to play", the IHSA extended the round robin format being used at the State Championship Tournament to the sectional tournaments.

In the State Championship Tournament, teams would be randomly assigned to pools of four, and play a three match round robin. The winners of each pool would advance to the Championship Match, and the runners-up in each pool would advance to play for third place. Ties were broken by head-to-head results or total points scored (in the event of a three way tie)

Tournament Format

Each round was comprised of 30 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions.

The top four teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors. The trophies were of the design smaller than that of the athletic trophies given out by the IHSA.

Questions

For the third year, the questions were written by a group of retired coaches and person from other states. Tom Egan served his third and final year as chief editor, before moving on to become the head coach at Maine South.

CLASS A

2003 Class A IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Stillman Valley High School

Runner-Up: Carlinville High School

Third Place The Latin School

Fourth Place Gibault Catholic High School

POOL #1

Carlinville swept through their pool with a 3-0 record. Gibault, [[Mt.Carmel], & PORTA were all tied with 1-2 records,. with Gibault advancing to the third place game based on total points (360, 355, 332). It was the closest tiebreaker since pool play had been instituted.

Round	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
1	Carlinville	156	Mt. Carmel	94
	Gibault	126	PORTA	95
2	Carlinville	268	PORTA	124
	Mt. Carmel	172	Gibault	120
3	Carlinville	133	Gibault	114
	PORTA	113	Mt. Carmel	89

POOL #2

Stillman Valley advanced with a 3-0 record in the pool. Dunlap, The Latin School, & University were all tied with 1-2 records. The Latin School advanced on total points (425, 482, 400).

Round	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
1	Stillman Valley	181	University	60
	Dunlap	204	Latin School	162
2	Stillman Valley	194	Dunlap	184
	Latin School	191	University	157
3	Stillman Valley	136	Latin School	129
	University	183	Dunlap	37

Third Place

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Latin School	165	Gibault	60

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Stillman Valley	172	Carlinville	142

CLASS AA

2003 Class AA IHSA State Championship Tournament

State Champion: Wheaton North High School

Runner-Up: Auburn High School

Third Place New Trier High School

Fourth Place Lyons High School

POOL #1

Wheaton North swept the pool to advance to the Championship Match. New Trier went 2-1 and advance to play for third place.

Round	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
1	Mahomet-Seymour	180	Stevenson	179
	Wheaton North	217	New Trier	162
2	New Trier	263	Mahomet-Seymour	124
	Wheaton North	348	Stevenson	166
3	Wheaton North	321	Mahomet-Seymour	78
	New Trier	225	Stevenson	145

POOL #2

Auburn swept the pool to advance to the Championship Match. Lyons went 2-1 and advance to play for third place.

Round	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
1	Auburn	165	Lincoln-Way East	149
	Lyons	211	Sacred Heart-Griffin	96
2	Auburn	270	Sacred Heart-Griffin	179
	Lyons	268	Lincoln-Way East	186
3	Auburn	246	Lyons	157
	Lincoln-Way East	188	Sacred Heart-Griffin	115

Third Place

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
New Trier	192	Lyons	130

Finals

Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Score
Wheaton North	248	Auburn	135

Notes

• Stillman Valley, the odds on favorite, completed their quest for a championship behind the excellent play of Kelly Tourdot.
• This was the second of what would be Wheaton North's three consecutive IHSA state titles.
• The Class AA Tournament would be mired in a rare controversy. Mahomet-Seymour was embroiled in a protest with the IHSSBCA when one of their players was left off of Team Illinois. The player and coach had gone so far as to involve their principal, and attempt to involve the IHSA. In the end, the IHSA chose not to get involved. After several posts on the internet berating several coaches, the team had its day at the finals, and did not perform well enough to place.
• This was also the tournament in which Fenwick qualified, but was denied advancement by the sectional host when it made up rules in what is now known as The Screwup on Western. As a result, Lyons' placing in this tournament is not universally recognized.

IHSA State Championship Tournaments 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012 · 2013 · 2014 · 2015 · 2016 · 2017 · 2018 · 2019 · 2020 (cancelled) · 2021 (cancelled) · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 Records Tournament Records Associated Individuals Sister John Baricevic (former question editor; current or former official) · Tom Egan (former question editor; former official)  · Brad Fischer (question editor)  · Rob Grierson (head of officials)  · Ron McGraw (former IHSA admin)  · Matt Laird (former official)  · Mike Laudermith (official)  · David Reinstein (former official)  · Mike Sorice (official)