Quirky rituals help students prep for the Academic Decathlon
Whether it’s listening to Metallica for relaxation or giving up dairy, each team at this year’s California Academic Decathlon State Championship has its own quirky rituals to try to ensure success.
The team members for El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera do “Decathahugs” before competing, said Patrick Rubalcava, 16, a junior.
The El Camino Real High School team, one of the event’s most successful, picks a secret quote that’s related to the material to guide them through the season, said John Dalsass, a co-coach.
Sixty-two teams and 537 students from across California gathered in Sacramento on Saturday and Sunday for the grueling competition, which tests participants in 10 areas, including language and literature, and music and art, with a focus on the French Revolution this year.
The popular multiple-choice Super Quiz portion of the competition, the only event open to the public, was full of cheers Sunday evening. When Marshall High’s score was posted from a projector, team members from the Los Angeles school shrieked with joy.
As the team bounced up and down, dancing and singing along with the Black Eyed Peas song “I Gotta Feeling,” Larry Welch, their coach, said the members were relieved.
He said the team members, who come from diverse backgrounds, represent not only L.A.’s cultural diversity but also Marshall’s diversity.
“They’re amazing kids,” he said. “They’re unbelievable.”
The winner of the competition will be announced Monday, and that team will compete at the national championships in Omaha next month.
Teams from Los Angeles Unified School District schools are historically highly competitive at the Decathlon, said George Wong, the event’s treasurer.
But this year, one of the state’s powerhouse teams -- Moorpark High, national champions for the last two years -- isn’t competing. Moorpark’s longtime coach stepped down last year, and it didn’t enter a team in the local competition this year.
Ann Cortina, the coach for West High in Torrance, which placed first in L.A. County’s regional competition, said the absence of Moorpark makes this year’s competition more exciting.
“You don’t have the traditional powerhouse there,” she said.
Striving to be a “powerhouse” team is no easy feat, decathletes say.
Her team wasn’t allowed to eat dairy a week before the competition to enhance performance in the speech and interview portions, said Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic, 18, of Marshall High.
“When you order from an Italian restaurant, that’s pretty difficult,” she said.
Garfield High School students take a different approach. Before each competition, they gather in a circle and deliver their speeches as fast as they can -- at the same time, said Alexis Lopez, 17.
“It’s ironically Zen-like,” said Alexis.
Robert Jong, 17, a senior at Alhambra’s Mark Keppel High School, said he started singing “A Whole New World” to himself before competing two years ago.
He said the song represents stepping into a new environment before his speech.
“It just kind of stuck,” he said.
nicole.santacruz
@latimes.com
