The 2000 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the fourteenth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the ninth season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA). For the fourth year, both tournaments were held at the Peoria Civic Center on Saturday, March 18th.
The tournament was hosted by Woodruff (1A) & Carlinville (2A), with equipment furnished by Buzzersystems.com.
Advancement
Within each class, the state was divided into eight areas (Sectionals) Each sectional hosted a tournament, the winner of which advanced to the State Championship Tournament. The determination of these geographic boundaries was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office.
Tournament Format
Each round was comprised of 30 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions. The sectional tournaments and State Championship Tournament were all single elimination. Teams were randomly assigned to positions in the bracket without regard for record or performance.
The exception to the single elimination format occurred in the semifinals, where the two semifinal losers played a third place match. 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.
This would be the last year that the single elimination format would be used by the IHSA in the State Championship Tournament.
CLASS A
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third Place
Finals
CLASS AA
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third Place
Finals
Notes
- The Championship match in Class A featured one of the single great performances in the history of the Tournaments. Making their fourth consecutive trip to the Tournament, and having failed to win the Championship in the previous trips, Byron's Matt Childers scored fourteen individual toss-ups and carried his team to the Class A State Title.
- While Stevenson was 67-5 entering the Tournament, they were favored to go down in defeat to IMSA, whom many thought would get their fifth straight Title behind the play of outstanding junior, Yogesh Raut. Instead, Stevenson stopped IMSA's streak with their second (first since 1991) first round exit. Stevenson then defeated Streator and their star player Ben Ricca (regarded by many as the outstanding senior in Illinois that year), despite their consecutive two top-four finishes. To claim the championship, Stevenson then had to knock off an 18-0 Naperville Central team that was vying to be the second undefeated team in IHSA history. It is widely considered among the biggest upsets in tournament history, as well as one of the toughest roads that any champion had to go through to win a title.
- This was the last State Series for which Answers Plus would provide questions, and the last tournament in which the questions would be exclusively short buzzer-beater type questions.
- Both Stevenson and Byron won their first State Titles; the first time this had occurred since the classes were split in 1992. This would be the last time this would occur until 2007.
- LaHarpe is liklely the smallest public school to ever finish in the IHSA top-4 in scholastic bowl with an enrollment of 165. In 2007 it was closed & consolidated into Illini West (Carthage).