November 8, 2025 - For the third year in a row, the PAWAC International Scholastic Bowl has crowned a new champion - the Dukes of Dixon High School!
Dixon not only won the $300 grand prize & trophy, but will also qualify to compete at the WACA Academic WorldQuest in Washington, D.C. in April 2026. The Dukes are coached by Tom Padilla.
Rounding out the top finalists were - Peoria Notre Dame (2nd Place), U-High (Normal) (3rd Place), & Richwoods (4th Place). Other afternoon finalists were Illinois Valley Central (Chillicothe), Rochester, The High School of St. Thomas More (Champaign), & North Mac (Virden).
The Peoria Area World Affairs Council welcomed over 170 students from 20 high schools on November 8th representing central & western Illinois ranging from the Peoria-area, to the Quad Cities, Decatur, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, & Springfield.
The tournament once again featured old & new faces including - North Mac (Virden), Lincoln Community High School, Princeton, Rochester, & Warrensburg-Latham and the return of veterans, Geneseo & Eureka. All of these schools posted exceptional play. Once again, the small schools division again featured a surprise finalist in North Mac from Virden, Illinois who overcame a 5 AM call time to drive up from Springfield to go an impressive 4-1 through the morning rounds to qualify for appearance in the afternoon playoffs.
The tournament also featured some exciting and competitive matches as several teams found themselves in matches that came down to the wire and a few that went into overtime.
Leading the pack for the All Tournament Team was Peoria's top scholastic bowl player, Corbin Coovert (East Peoria), who topped the field with 36 toss ups in the morning rounds. One of the highlights of the day was the abundant scoring from many players competing at the tournament. In fact, while there were plenty of exciting games by teams, there were also "mini-competitions" playing out throughout the day. Instead of a single player dominating questions throughout day, it wasn't uncommon to find teams where three, even four players were answering multiple questions in a round. The gap between 40th to 14th place, was only the difference of a handful of questions with over 130 players scoring at least ONE question. Truly a fun day for EVERYone!
This was the third year featuring the house-written question sets of the Ghostwriters, et. al! Tournament organizers cited that the increased scoring across so many players was due to the special nature of the questions which not only were derived from traditional academic sources but included highlights in the news & pop culture from this past year. Some coaches remarked "I have players that normally may answer a few questions in a whole season, but today they were the stars".
Making the tournament possible were over 30 volunteers from PAWAC as well as friends of PAWAC including former coaches, players, Bradley University students, members of Gamma Upsilon Chapter of Theta Chi, & Illinois State University students. Who we could not have done it without them!
Kicking off the day was a special guest of honor - President James Shadid of Bradley University who generously took time out of his schedule to personally welcome teams to the campus of Bradley University. Later in the day, students also heard from Director of International Business at Illinois State University, Dr. Barbara Ribbens, who highlighted many of the global oppurtunties students can find at ISU. Thank you to President Shadid & Dr. Ribbens for taking the time to join us over the weekend. Truly a special day showcasing global education right here in Central Illinois!
Underwriting the tournament & global education outreach at the Peoria Area World Affairs Council is our sponsors - Bradley University, the Carson & Iris Varner International Business Institute at Illinois State University, BuzzerSystems.com, CEFCU. As we look back on our upcoming 25th anniversary of the International Scholastic Bowl next year, we thank CEFCU for being the longest continuous sponsor of this truly one-of-a-kind event. We also want to thank our generous individual sponsors - Gregory Peine, Joshua & Mary Zulu, Christopher Doscotch, Lawrence Resutko, Don & Lucinda Samford, & Piston Acres.
Save the date for November 14, 2026 as we look to welcome teams for our 25th Annual International Scholastic Bowl!
