Welcome

Illinois Scholastic Bowl News is >on Facebook!<

SchoBowlFest will be held online on September 25!

This online coaches conference is open to high school and middle school coaches. SchoBowlFest will begin at 10:00am on September 25 with a Town Hall Q&A session that will be open to the public. Come prepared with questions about organizing your team, setting up a tournament or practice schedule, mentoring your team, coaching to particular topics, learning the “canon” of scholastic bowl topics, or any other aspect of coaching.

After a lunch break, the conference will pick back up at 1:00pm with breakout presentations on using the statistics program YellowFruit and organizing your team practices. The presentations will be open only to IHSSBCA members; membership forms and payments can be turned in on the day of the conference. Watch our Facebook page for updates!

Download a 2021-22 membership form to become an IHSSBCA member!

IHSSBCA members receive access to register for Novice, Kickoff, and Turnabout tournaments, and receive access to the IHSSBCA Coaches Handbook. Visit the membership page for more information, and follow more IHSSBCA news on the IHSSBCA Facebook page.

Submit your ballot for the pre-season Community Poll online by November 1. Rank your top ten teams overall and in Class A and see how your ballot stacks up against the community consensus this winter. The top three teams in each category will be posted publicly. Become an IHSSBCA member to see the full results of the poll in the winter edition of Scholastic Visions.
Download a form here to register for IHSSBCA Novice tournaments are coming up on October 16! Novice tournaments provide a low-difficulty, early-season experience for new and young players, and use a question set designed for new high school players. Any IHSSBCA member team may sign up for a Novice tournament, but only the following players may participate:

  • Any freshman who has never made the top 100 players at MSNCT;
  • Any sophomore who has never made the top 100 players at MSNCT, and who has never made the top ten players at a tournament or conference in high school; and
  • Any junior or senior entering their first season of high school play.

For the “top players” above, lists should be compiled at the end of preliminary play, if a tournament involves prelims and playoffs phases.

Novice tournaments will be held at Barrington, Granite City, Keith Country Day (Rockford), Lincoln-Way East (Frankfort), Mattoon, and online. Visit the Novice page for details.

Post your 2021-22 tournament information in Tournament Central for high school or middle school teams by sending your tournament information to strey.k.a@gmail.com.
Renew your moderator certification in 2021-22! Ask coaches to fill out an online moderator certification form or submit a printed moderator certification card to help you get certified or keep your certification active!

Visit our tournament central pages for high school or middle school.
Download a printable calendar for high school or middle school.

Looking forward to next season? The 2021-22 high school and middle school tournament calendars are now accepting tournament listings.

Want your tournament listed on the IHSSBCA’s statewide tournament calendar? Email us with your tournament details to have it listed on the high school or middle school tournament calendar.
Hosting a tournament? Download our tournament rules, customizable schedules, and a wide variety of differently-formatted scoresheets.
The list of certified moderators is online! You can become a certified moderator by receiving online or card-based reviews from coaches and other certified moderators.
The September 2021 issue of Scholastic Visions includes the pre-season community poll, information about applying for grants from the IHSSBCA and Matt’s Buzzers, details about our updated scorebooks, and more! The first issue of Scholastic Visions is free to all scholastic bowl community members. Become an IHSSBCA member to download the last three issues from the Scholastic Visions homepage.