Scholars Carry State’s Hopes : Education: El Camino Real students, rated among the top contenders, will vie against 48 other championship teams in the U. S. Academic Decathlon.

Nine students at El Camino Real High School, their brains awash in a sea of facts and formulas, left Tuesday for Boise, Ida., where they will compete in this weekend’s U.S. Academic Decathlon.

The goal: to be declared national champions Sunday, entitling them to $30,000 in scholarship money and the license to gloat over an achievement that would crown a year of intensive preparation.

For two grueling days, the Woodland Hills school’s squad will go head to head against teams from 47 other states and the District of Columbia, taking tests in seven academic areas as well as in speech and interview categories. The exams are topped by the pressure-packed Super Quiz, a game-show-like event staged before an audience of often rowdy parents, coaches and team members.

“They’re exhausted,” Mark Johnson, the coach who has shepherded the school’s decathlon team for five years, said of his charges. “It’s tough because they’re going over the same material month after month after month. They’re tired of it, but they’re putting in one big last push.”

“This has gone on really, really long,” said Joshua Erdman, 16, one of two juniors on the team. “I’d like to get this over as soon as possible.”

The El Camino crew ranks among the top three teams entering the contest, just behind the team from Texas--a perennial powerhouse in the national trials--and a strong group from Illinois. Participants from Arizona and New Jersey could also elbow their way to the championship. The rankings are based on scores by each state’s team, which fielded the same questions.

“I couldn’t even call it at this point. We could be first; we could be fourth,” said Johnson, a history teacher who “lives and breathes the decathlon,” according to fellow coach Jeff Craig.

The road to Boise has been arduous for their pupils. In November, in the narrowest victory ever in Los Angeles Unified School District’s contest, El Camino nabbed first place by a mere five points--a difference of one correct answer. In last month’s state competition in San Bernardino, the team had to hold off powerful challenges by Laguna Hills High School and West High School in Torrance.

Their trip to Boise is being subsidized by the Los Angeles Unified School District and the California Academic Decathlon.

If El Camino takes home the national title Sunday, it will continue the dominance of teams from California and Texas, which have won in all 10 previous finals. The last California team to emerge victorious was William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills--El Camino’s cross-town rival--back in 1989.

But Craig, a Canoga Park native who teaches English, is counting on some extra help from his wife in this weekend’s tournament.

Two years ago, Christine Craig was expecting the couple’s first child when she attended the district awards banquet, which saw El Camino land the top spot. However, she missed the state awards and the team finished second.

This year, she was pregnant again at the district banquet in November and at the awards ceremony last month in San Bernardino. But then came a hitch: Their daughter, scheduled to be born Sunday--the final day of the national contest--arrived early by two weeks, possibly thwarting her usefulness as a good-luck charm.

But Craig says he is still prepared.

“What we’re going to do is bring a picture of her pregnant to the banquet” in Boise, he said. “We’re hoping it’ll work.

“I’m really not superstitious, but why take chances?”