The 2010 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the twenty-fourth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the nineteenth season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA). For the fourteenth year, both tournaments were held at the Peoria Civic Center. The tournaments were held on Friday, March 19, 2010.
The tournament was co-managed by John Rathbun & Cynthia Wierzba and equipment was furnished by Buzzersystems.com.
Advancement
Teams were assigned to one of eight sectionals within each class. Coaches then seeded the top 8 teams in their sectional. The IHSA then assigned the seeded teams to one of four regionals (1 with 8, 2 with 7, etc), with the remainder of the teams assigned to a regional geographically. The winners of the regionals would advance to their respective sectional tournaments, where they would play a three match round robin to determine a winner. The determination of the geographic boundaries of the Sectional was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office.
Tournament Format
Each round was comprised of 30 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions.
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 among tied teams (in the event of a three-way tie).
The top four teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors.
CLASS A
POOL #1
New Berlin finished 3-0 to advance to the Finals, St.Joseph-Ogden finished 2-1 and advanced to the Consolation Match, Farmington went 1-2, and Fairfield went 0-3.
POOL #2
Lisle finished 3-0 to advance to the Finals, Macomb finished 2-1 and advanced to the Consolation Match, Winnebago went 1-2, and Herrin went 0-3.
Third Place
Finals
CLASS AA
POOL #1
Stevenson swept through their pool with a 3-0 record. Carbondale finished 2-1, New Trier ended at 1-2, and Morton finished 0-3.
POOL #2
Auburn swept through their pool with a 3-0 record. IMSA went 2-1 to advance to the third place match. Hinsdale South went 1-2, and Bradley-Bourbonnais went 0-3.
Third Place
Finals
Notes
- Notably absent this year was Latin, whose streak of consecutive Sectional Championships was ended by Lisle.
- Also absent was St. Ignatius, who, with powerhouse Andrew Deveau was considered by many to be a favorite to win the State Championship. St. Ignatius was upset by Niles West in a close Regional Championship match.
- With the absence of St. Ignatius, the Maine South Sectional became highly competitive. It ended in a three-way circle of death between New Trier, Loyola Academy, and Oak Park-River Forest, who were all tied at 2-1. Niles West went 0-3. New Trier was declared the champion by virtue of having scored the most points within the circle of death.
- Until Stevenson's victory, it had been two years since the State Champion was a team from the Chicago area.
- It was Auburn's ninth consecutive trip to State, and its ninth consecutive year placing in the top 4. This is a new record, as Latin and Wheaton North have only managed eight consecutive top-4 finishes.
- The artistic dance and programming/scripting subcategories were eliminated beginning this year.
- This was the first year that the IHSA specified subdistributions.
- This was the last year that John Rathbun would serve as tournament manager, having served in the role for over 15 years.