Laguna Hills Again Tops Decathlon

For the fourth consecutive year, Laguna Hills High School has beaten 46 other high schools to win the Orange County Academic Decathlon.

“I think we have worked hard to create a tradition and pride in academic accomplishment,” said Roger Gunderson, an English teacher and one of the team’s two head coaches.

The winning team of juniors and seniors consisted of eight boys and one girl with a broad range of grade-point averages for their classroom work.

To take home the trophy, the team had to compete in nine academic events including speeches, interviews, essays and a “Super Quiz” for which they read more than 600 pages and answered questions in a public forum.

Gunderson said the competition required “hundreds of hours of preparation” after school and on weekends. The Laguna Hills team will compete next in March at the California Academic Decathlon, an event in which Laguna Hills High School has come out on top for the past two years. If the team wins the state competition, it will go on to the national decathlon in Boise, Ida. For the past two years the school has come in second, behind Texas schools, in that meet.

“This team certainly has the cohesiveness, spirit and drive to go all the way,” said Kathy Lane, the other head coach.

Superior performance in the decathlons, the coaches said, in the past has helped individual team members win college scholarships.

“It is a very rewarding program,” said team captain Teddy Chen, 17 and a senior who plans a career in medical science. “It is something that will help me and affect me the rest of my life.”

The top individual scorer in the county was Stephen Wu, 17, a senior at Foothill High in Santa Ana.

“I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy next to me.”

--Woody Allen