Taft Brain Trust Gets Caught in Afterglow

A few hours after the Taft Academic Decathlon team was crowned city champs in the battle of the brains, members grabbed a large banner from the banquet hall in downtown Los Angeles and headed for a late-night visit to their Woodland Hills campus.

The high-spirited group intended to hang the academic decathlon banner over an outdoor eating area, but were stopped by school district police after they were caught in the spotlight of a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter.

After a telephone call to the principal, the students were scolded and sent home.

First Valley Winner

There were a few sheepish grins as the young champions recounted their adventure. But the spunk, camaraderie and sense of mission that fueled the raid are characteristics that helped the Taft team win the decathlon.

The team from Taft High School is the first from the San Fernando Valley to win the title since the Los Angeles Unified School District began holding the competition in 1981.

The Academic Decathlon is a 10-event contest of cerebral calisthenics that pits students from local high schools in a battery of written tests in such areas as mathematics, science, literature, economics and fine arts. In addition, there is the Super Quiz--in which mental recall, speed and teamwork are tested.

Academic decathletes represent a range of grade-point averages. Each team consists of two students in the “Varsity” or the C-grade category, two from the “Scholastic” or the B category and two from the “Honors” or A category. Students only compete in their categories.

This year Taft won the competition with 4,522 points. The team took first place in six areas--science, speech, literature, social studies, fine arts and the Super Quiz. The team came in second in economics and third in math.

Taft won the right to compete in the state Academic Decathlon in Sacramento in March. The winner of the state meet goes on to the national competition in April in San Antonio, Tex.

Jeremy Singer, who won eight medals, was left off the list of potential “Scholastic” team members until he pleaded with Coach Arthur Berchin and was put on.

“I guess desire has a lot to do with this,” Berchin said.

Team member Douglas Korengold has a C average and served as an alternate to the varsity squad. After a summer of studying and preparing for the competition, the Tarzana senior said he is getting some of his best grades.

“I have one of only two A’s in physics,” Douglas said to the cheers of his teammates.

Among the team members who were multiple-medal winners were junior Daniel Fink and seniors Jason Lowy, Lillian Morris and Matthew Petach.

After months of intense preparation, team members said they were looking forward to a month to rest on their laurels, and catch up on school work. But when January rolls around, the team will go back into decathlon study mode for the upcoming competition.