Scholastic Bowl has had many great upsets in its long history, but by far the most notable of these upsets occurred at the 2016 Virginia High School League academic team state championships. At this event, Maggie Walker high school was posed to sweep the tournament by huge margins. Yet at the end of the day, it was not Maggie Walker who came out on top, but Central High School from Wise, VA was the champion.
To understand why this was such a big upset, both schools must be compared. The year prior and for the past 10 years, Maggie Walker finished top 20 in the nation including 4th and PACE the prior year. In addition to that, Maggie Walker has a very well funded scholastic bowl team and Central's scholastic bowl team had a whopping 0 dollars from the school. Central High School was also located in the middle of nowhere in Southwest Virginia. Not only that, but Central High School was unranked and had only competed against local schools that year.
In the regional qualifying tournament, Maggie Walker won their region by a margin of 300 points, something Central had never done in its history. When it came down to the state match, Central was answering questions left and right in an attempt to redeem themselves from their loss the previous year. In a very close match, Central came out on top by a margin of 60 points and captured the state championship showing that a school from nowhere with little funding can beat a well established scholastic bowl dynasty.