Parkway West
| Parkway West Longhorns | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location: Chesterfield, MO | |
| Coaches | Patrick Troy |
| National Appearances | HSNCT: 2013 PACE: 2011, 2012, 2021 |
| Program Status | Active |
| School Size | 1,414 |
| NAQT Page | link |
| Website | link |
Parkway West High School is a public high school located in Chesterfield, Missouri, in the western reaches of St. Louis. Parkway West is currently one of the top teams in the state of Missouri, and was voted third behind St. Joseph Central and College Heights Christian in the 2021 statewide preseason poll.
Program History
2009-2014
Parkway West is first recorded as having played a pyramidal quizbowl tournament with statistics in 2009, at the NAQT Missouri Qualifier. In 2011, the team made it to the MSHSAA State Championship for Class 4, coming in fourth. Parkway West also attended the 2011 PACE NSC but went 1-13 and finished last in the 60-team field. In 2012, the team began to put up much stronger stats, and had a clear lead scorer in Amos Chen, but were consistently beaten by regional foe Ladue, who at the time were a national powerhouse led by Max Schindler and Ben Zhang. Parkway West attended NSC again in 2012 but went 2-11. The 2013 team was stronger still, with second place finishes at the MOQBA Fall (to Ladue) and a win at MOQBA Winter over SLUH, as well as third at the MSHSAA state tournament. In 2013, Parkway also attended the school's first HSNCT, placing 129th in the 256 team field. In 2014, the school placed third at MFAT and again returned to the state tournament, but did not attend any national tournaments.
2014-2019
After the 2014 graduation of Chen, as well as second scorer J.D. Lister, the Parkway West program went into a decline. Despite promising results at an October 2015 mirror of SCOP Novice hosted by Oakville, the school would not attend any further tournaments with full individual stats until 2017 WUFAT. Parkway West began consistently playing tournaments again in 2018.
2019-present
By the 2019-20 season, Parkway West was again posting consistently decent results, placing seventh at WUHSAC with a team led by current Mizzou player Mukund Viswanadha. The team also received a huge influx of new talent in late 2020, with several young players improving by leaps and bounds over the COVID-19 pandemic-induced break. After knocking on the door for several tournaments, Parkway West finally broke through by winning the 2021 Sullivan Invitational. The team also became somewhat known online for having seemingly endless roster depth, frequently fielding a full C team.
Parkway West returned to nationals at the 2021 NSC, placing 49th while going 5-9. To date, this is the program's best result at an NSC. Parkway was voted 7th in the 2021 Missouri postseason poll, with literature player Yi Zheng playing on Missouri C at 2021 NASAT. In the 2021-22 season, the team has improved further and is currently somewhere in the top 5 programs in the state, placing second behind College Heights Christian and clearing 20 points per bonus at MFAT. Parkway West also placed third behind College Heights and Clayton at WUFAT.