Richland (MO)
| Richland Bears | |
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| Location: Richland, MO | |
| Coaches | Taylor Jones, Jim Schwartz |
| State Championships | 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2014 MSHSAA Class 2 2008, 2009 NAQT Small-School |
| Program Status | Unknown |
| School Size | 97[1] |
| NAQT Page | link |
Richland is a small public school in southwest Missouri. Under coach Roger Stephens, Richland was one of the most dominant small schools for the first two decades of MSHSAA quizbowl competition, as the only school to have attended each of the first twenty state championships. They won the Class 2 state title fifteen times over that time period, only missing the championship game in 2002 and 2010.
Richland won the small-school title at the first two iterations of the NAQT Missouri Qualifier, but did not attend that tournament again until 2014, when they placed 2nd overall behind Hallsville, a small school in MSHSAA Class 3.
At the 2009 MSHSAA State Championship, Richland defeated St. Paul Lutheran 280-275 to win its thirteenth Class 2 title.
At the 2010 MSHSAA State Championship, Richland went 1-2 in the preliminary rounds and placed fifth, making this only the second time they have not won the Class 2 championship.
Richland won its fourteenth state title in 2011 and placed second in 2012 and 2013.
In 2014, Richland lost a preliminary game against defending champion Saxony Lutheran 390-350, but won the rematch in the championship game 480-290 to earn its fifteenth state title.
Richland attended its first national tournament in 2015, finishing tied for 11th at the 2015 SSNCT with an 11-2 record, after earning a perfect 9-0 record in its preliminary pool. Two weeks later, Saxony Lutheran defeated Richland in the third consecutive Class 2 championship game to feature the two teams.
After twenty consecutive district championships and MSHSAA State appearances dating back to the first championship series in 1996, Calvary Lutheran defeated Richland 390-290 in the 2016 Class 2 District 10 tournament to end Richland's distinction as the only school to advance to every MSHSAA state championship tournament. Since then, Richland has (as of 2024) only won their district in 2019, which was followed by a sectionals loss to Calvary Lutheran.
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- ↑ 2023-24 MSHSAA enrollment (grades 9-11 in March 2023), from https://www.mshsaa.org/Activities/SchoolEnrollments.aspx