Coach of Taft’s Decathlon Champs Goes Out on Top : Education: The Los Angeles Academic Decathlon will start next Saturday without Art Berchin, who led the Taft High team to the ’89 national title.

For the first time in recent memory, it’s quiet after school in Art Berchin’s neat classroom. Too quiet.

The Taft High School English teacher says he misses the noise and tension of the school’s Academic Decathlon team, which for the past four years met there every day to study.

Berchin, who as coach twice took the Taft team to the U.S. Academic Decathlon finals, quit the job weeks after winning the national title in April.

Hoping to duplicate the success of Berchin’s Taft team, Academic Decathlon teams from schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District have already started last-minute cramming that will continue until the districtwide contest next Saturday.

But Berchin won’t be there.

“After four years, most people would assume that was enough,” Berchin said this week. “And that’s what I told everyone.”

However, Taft Principal Ron Berz maintains that Berchin quit after Berz refused a favor for one of Berchin’s team members. “He was contemplating hanging it up anyway,” Berz said.

Whatever reason for Berchin’s resignation, coaches of other high school decathlon teams say it will be tough for Taft, which has all new team members, to repeat last year’s feat without him. The district’s Academic Decathlon contest is the first step toward the national championship.

Taft’s new coach, humanities teacher Michael Wilson, refuses to predict whether the team will win the city championship but said, “I know we will do well.” Wilson, who holds a master’s degree in English literature, said the team has been studying at least five hours a day.

“We’re putting in as much time as any previous Taft team,” Wilson said.

Teams figuring to battle with Taft for the city title include El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, which finished second to Taft last year, and Westside’s University High School.

The academic contest, which tests students in 10 categories, including subjects such as mathematics, science and history, has earned national attention in recent years. Taft team members appeared with Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show” this spring after their victory.

Under contest rules, the nine-member teams are made up of three A-average students, three B-average students and three C-average students.

“I’m not going because it would be too painful to sit in the audience,” Berchin said. “The pain is not being in the action. Someone who coaches a decathlon must love competition. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be in it. I miss proving that I can put together the best team.”

Berchin said the disagreement with the principal was only part of the reason for his quitting but declined to say more about the incident. Berz said Berchin asked that one of his team members be allowed to deliver a speech at the Taft graduation although the boy missed the deadline to try out for the honor.

“I thought over the request, and I didn’t think it was the right thing to do,” Berz said. “But we have no hard feelings. I have the highest regard for him.”

Berchin took the same path as former Marshall High School Academic Decathlon coach David Tokofsky, who quit after winning the national championship in 1987.

Tokofsky, who knows Berchin as a competitor and a colleague, said the long hours from summer to spring that are required to win the national championship probably discouraged Berchin from trying for a second national title.

Berchin endured the demands of the Academic Decathlon long enough to finish what he set out to do when he took over the Taft team, Tokofsky said.

“The first year he brought the team into battle position, taking third in the district,” Tokofsky said. “Then they had a score that would have won it, except we got an unbelievable score and go on to win nationals. Then the third year he wins city, state and goes to nationals, where he loses first place by just the essay section. If you’re possessed about it, you can’t quite leave it there.”

Berchin didn’t. The Encino man, who gave up a career as an UCLA administrator in 1985 to teach high school students, started working with his new team immediately after Taft’s 1988 national finals defeat by the team from J.J. Pearce High School of Richardson, Tex.

At the time, Berchin set forth his team philosophy: “Winning is everything.” Nine months later, Taft won the city championship, defeated Beverly Hills High School for the state title and beat 38 other schools, including second-place Deer Park High School, of Deer Park, Tex., to win the national championship.

“When you let go of something like that, it leaves a vacuum,” Berchin said.

“Over the summer, I was getting withdrawal pains. But now I think it was the right thing to do. It was a hell of a lot of work, and it’s time that someone else has an opportunity to try it.”