SWATA is the Southwest Virginia Academic Team Alliance, a group of schools in the counties of Far Southwest Virginia participating in other organized academic competitions (particularly VHSL Scholastic Bowl) who are seeking additional ways to improve their performance and raise their profile regionally, statewide and nationally.
SWATA started as a Facebook group founded by Honaker High School alum (and Yale University alum, and UVA Law alum) Jacob Mitchell in November of 2014 as a means for schools to trade news and scores from matches, and for ex-pats to follow along. Quickly the group turned into an organization hub for efforts to improve the game in the region, efforts that led to a first round-robin event in January 2016 between Honaker, Gate City, and Ridgeview, and efforts that came to fruition over the course the 2016-2017 academic year.
SWATA’s primary business is the organization of a series of Saturday 20/20 academic quizbowl tournaments, contested between teams of the region's high schools, that have been hosted over SWATA's existence by (Bristol) Virginia High School, Gate City High School, Richlands High School, Honaker High School, Tazewell High School, and Castlewood High School. A new event, the SWATA Solo Challenge, was instituted in the spring of 2023 and allowed individual players to shine disconnected from their high school teams. (A pop-culture, or “trash” tournament, Sic Semper Trashis, is run at Virginia High School, and is “open” to teams from outside of the Alliance; that tournament has turned into a fundraising vehicle for SWATA players and teams pursuing national competition.)
We are proud of our history of producing state champions in Virginia's small-school divisions. We salute our most recent state champions from 2024, Ridgeview in Class 2 and J.I. Burton in Class 1. Honaker has a distinguished history and several championships in Class 1, both before and during the SWATA era. In advance of the SWATA era, (Wise County) Central High School won Class 2 Virginia State in 2016; during SWATA's COVID-enforced shutdown, Gate City won Class 2 in 2021 online.
We're also proud of our presence at national championships. Gate City is an ever-present at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament; Tazewell and Central have also contested HSNCT. Tazewell was a trophy-winner at the NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament in 2017, and Honaker placed a scorer in the top 20 that year. Central, Lebanon and Castlewood have played against the nation's best at the PACE National Scholastic Competition in past years. SWATA has built a presence at the Individual Player National Championship Tournament in recent years, highlighted by four players from SWATA (led by Malachi Ledford of Central) challenging questions at the highest level in the 2024 nationals season.
But every bit as valuable as the games won at the state level and the national competition are the development of players and alumni, not merely as players but as tournament organizers, scorekeepers and readers. Today’s player is the leader of tomorrow, and our game is at its best when we support one another.
We are developing our players, and developing connections with one another, to strengthen our game.