Airhead Valley Kids They Are Not : Taft Scholars Win Top State Academic Prize

Put all those jokes about airhead Valley girls and guys into cold storage. On Monday, six Vals from Taft High School in Woodland Hills were crowned champions of the California Academic Decathlon, the state’s toughest high school battle of the brains.

The win was totally awesome.

Taft racked up 43,539 points, about 800 more than second-place winner Roosevelt High School of Fresno. Taft also won the Super Quiz, an event in which mental recall, speed and teamwork are tested.

It’s a Team Effort

Four of the six team members won two or more individual medals. But it was overall team excellence, not individual performances, that gave Taft its victory. In most of the 10 events, the scores of Taft students were bunched near the top.

Tournament officials marveled at the depth of the Taft team and credited its victory to the school’s ability to field a team of six strong members.

“Usually, there are one or two outstanding individuals on a team and they carry the load,” said George Wong, a director on the board of the California Academic Decathlon. “They won because of their depth.”

Arthur Berchin, coach of the Taft team, said he encouraged his students not to worry about individual scores. “It is the team win that counts, that was our philosophy,” he said.

Taft was one of 47 high schools to compete in the state competition held Saturday in Sacramento. Announcement of individual and team winners came at a luncheon Monday.

It is the second year in a row that a high school from the Los Angeles Unified School District has won the state Decathlon contest. Last year, Marshall High of Silverlake took top state honors and went on to win the national Academic Decathlon title.

Taft now begins preparing for its try at the national crown. That competition will take place in April in San Antonio.

After the awards ceremony, team members admitted that they were unsure about their victory until the moment the team’s name was announced as the winner. For nearly an hour, the students watched members of other teams walk away with many of the top individual awards. When Taft’s name was called, team members leaped out of their chairs, shouting with joy and relief.

“I was so scared that I almost cried,” said Lillian Morris, describing the anticipation she felt before Taft was named the winner.