They came, they competed and they went home with a van full of
medals.
They came, they competed and they went home with a van full of medals.
Wearing their signature shirts, the San Benito High School Academic Decathlon team earned 16 medals at the state finals in Sacramento.
Coach Amy Brown is proud of the team and its success.
“To bring home this many medals in only our second year is quite an accomplishment,” Brown said.
Students were tested in 10 subject areas – math, economics, social science, music, art, language and literature, super quiz, essay, speech and interview.
The last three were graded by judges, while the first seven were objective – the competitors take multiple-choice written tests, except for the super quiz, which was held in front of an audience.
“Being tested in areas like interviewing and public speaking are great tools for these students to learn before college,” Brown said. “It’s something they’re eventually going to have to do, so to get the experience now makes this class a great prep tool.”
Junior Anna Dennis sees it that way. The extra hours of studying each week that earned her a silver medal in art has helped her prepare to apply to universities.
“It’s so much different than regular curriculum and there is so much more information that I wouldn’t learn in my normal classes,” she said. “It’s also very fun and gratifying.”
Dennis, along with the other seven students, participated in the super quiz. Paired with an intense, game show like competition, the super quiz pits schools in the same division against each other to answer rounds of random trivia. SBHS took the bronze in its division.
Senior Yvette Pellman said this was the most nerve-rattling part of the weekend.
“When you enter the room you think to yourself ‘these kids are all as smart as me if not smarter,’ but then you have to realize everyone is just there to have fun,” she said.
It was Pellman’s previous knowledge and personal family life that helped her achieve gold. An accomplished saxophone and flute player, she was raised in a musically talented family.
“Music has been around me my whole life, which is why I think I excelled in this category,” Pellman said.
Each year, the decathlons focus on a specific theme to narrow the amount of knowledge students have to study. This year’s theme was “America, the growth of a nation.” All 10 areas of competition revolved around the theme.
Students prepared for the competition during zero period – 7:20 to 8:22 a.m. – Tuesday through Friday. This means waking up earlier, and taking extra curriculum on top of their already demanding schedules, which Brown said is commendable.
“For these kids to want to take on extra work, and be here at 7:20 in the morning is a lot,” she said. “You know how teenagers need their sleep.”
Students are broken up into three teams – honor, scholastic and varsity. Those on the honor team usually have a GPA of 3.5 to 4.0, scholastic 3.0 to 3.5 and varsity 3.0 and under.
The following awards were given: Anna Dennis earned a silver in art, Kyle Johnson earned a bronze in economics, Kirk Badger earned a silver in essay, Magali Ferare earned a gold in speech and a gold in music, Yvette Pellman earned a gold in music, Jake Mahan earned a bronze in science and Christina Rios earned a gold in speech. Akshay Banesh and the rest of the group earned a bronze in super quiz.
For more information, go to the California Academic Decathlon at www.academicdecathlon.org/ or the United States Academic Decathlon www.usad.org.
