High school quizbowl national poll
There have been various attempts at compiling a poll of the top high school teams in the country since the late 1980s. Academic Hallmarks used to release their own Top 25 rankings around 1990. Kevin Commo inquired on the Yahoo group about doing a poll in 1999. Some states, such as Illinois, do their own polls for state teams.
Quizbowl Resource Center Poll
The first nationwide NCAA football-style poll for high school teams was run by the Quizbowl Resource Center in May 2001. Eisenhower was the clear #1, receiving 14 of 17 votes cast and outdistancing their in-state rivals Detroit Catholic Central by a handy margin. State College, Dorman, and Cookeville each received one first-place vote each.
The next poll, conducted after the 2001 season had concluded in chaos--with ten different teams making the finals at the five nationals--was perhaps the most open-ended and interesting. 25 people voted, and four different teams received multiple first-place votes. NAQT champion Detroit Catholic Central emerged as the #1, with a slim majority of the #1 votes, 13 out of 25, but a strong edge in total points over #2, the PACE winners State College.
The next poll was run in November 2001, after some of the larger fall tournaments had released results. It saw a dead tie between Detroit Catholic Central and Dorman, each with 7 first-place votes and 292 total points. Cookeville was a hairsbreadth behind, with 289 total points and a first-place vote.
In February 2002, after some more important tournaments, the poll was run for a fourth time, and organizer Matt Weiner saw a strong regional bias in most of the ballots. Dorman received 9 of 16 first-place votes and had 37 more total points than second-place Cookeville in this poll.
Before the next poll, Weiner invited a group of high school coaches and collegiate students with heavy involvement in the high school game to comprise a closed panel that would conduct the future polls.
Eight members of the panel participated in the first overhauled poll, in May 2002. No team won a majority of the first-place votes, and Detroit Catholic Central beat Detroit Country Day by four total points to take the #1 spot.
The 2002 post-season poll, run in July, saw a much clearer picture, as the first-place votes all shifted to NAQT finalists Irmo and St. John's, neither of whom had received any first-place votes in the pre-nationals poll. Irmo's 5 first-place votes and 221 total points edged St. John's 4 first-place votes and 218 points for the top spot.
The 2002 fall poll occurred in December, with Dorman taking 7 of 9 first-place votes to win. Dorman remained on top in the May pre-nationals poll, earning 9 of 10 #1 votes.
In June 2003, Dorman and Thomas Jefferson squared off in the finals of both major nationals, and they likewise attracted all the attention atop the August 2003 postseason poll. Dorman received 4 of 6 first-place votes and edged TJ by 3 total points.
By this time, only six members of the panel were turning in ballots, which jeopardized the representative quality of the poll. The August 2003 edition was the last poll run by Matt Weiner under the official auspices of the Quizbowl Resource Center.
Poll Board
The eligible voters on the HSQB poll when it closed down were:
- High school coaches J.R. Barry of Brookwood, Kevin Commo of Burlington, Julie Gittings of State College, Carolyn Hawkins of Cookeville, Eric Huff of Dorman, and David Riley of Loyola Academy
- Collegiate players Charles Meigs of UCLA, Nate Meyvis of Yale, Chris Romero of Texas A&M, Matt Weiner of VCU, and Robert Wilson of Michigan
- PACE members David Bykowski and Emil Thomas Chuck
Noah Rahman Poll
Noah Rahman independently conducted a poll of hsquizbowl.org posters midway through the nationals schedule in June 2005, which received 10 votes. Thomas Jefferson finished on top with 8 of 10 first-place votes and a comfortable lead over State College. Brookwood and Dupont Manual received the other two #1 votes.
Fred Morlan Poll
In April 2007, HSQB chief administrator and PACE member Fred Morlan set out to conduct a new poll, with the permission of the rest of the HSQB/PACE staff. It followed a rule from the original Weiner poll: anyone could vote, but aberrant ballots would be discarded at Fred's discretion.
Eighteen people voted in the first new poll, with Maggie Walker coming out on top with 16 first-place votes, and second-place State College receiving the other two.
The poll was run once more after nationals, and saw Walker become the first-ever unanimous #1, getting the top spot in all 22 of the ballots cast. Second-place NAQT finisher State College was the clear #2.
In August 2007, the first-ever preseason poll was run, and saw Dorman edge Thomas Jefferson for the top spot.
Links to Full Polls
| Poll | Number 1 Ranked Team | Ballots |
|---|---|---|
| May 2001 | Eisenhower | 17 |
| July 2001 | Detroit Catholic Central | 25 |
| November 2001 | Detroit Catholic Central and Dorman | 17 |
| February 2002 | Dorman | 16 |
| May 2002 | Detroit Catholic Central | 8 |
| July 2002 | Irmo | 9 |
| December 2002 | Dorman | 9 |
| May 2003 | Dorman | 10 |
| August 2003 | Dorman | 6 |
| June 2005 | Thomas Jefferson | 10 |
| April 2007 | Maggie Walker | 18 |
| July 2007 | Maggie Walker | 22 |
| August 2007 | Dorman | 15 |
| March 2008 | Dorman | 12 |
| May 2008 | Dorman and Walt Whitman | 12 |
| June 2008 | Walt Whitman | 10 |
| January 2009 | Wilmington Charter | 15 |
| June 2009 | Wilmington Charter | 21 |