WOODLAND HILLS : Honors Pour in for Academic Team

The most honored, some might say successful, team in Los Angeles does not hit, tackle or dunk, but they sure can make your head spin. And the accolades keep coming.

After dazzling 45 other high school teams with their knowledge in the California Academic Decathlon on March 14 in Stockton, the members of the Taft High School decathlon team have been given honor after honor, the latest coming Thursday from the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

The trustees saluted coach Michael Wilson and the nine Taft students--Leonard An, David Bronstein, Adam Caress, Evan Dodge, Chris Hoag, Alex Jacobs, Robert Shaw, Josh Stempel and Mara Weiss. They will compete for the national title next month in Arizona.

Congratulations have poured in from everyone from Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) to their classmates, who held a huge pep rally for the team Wednesday. Even strangers have written to add their congratulations.

“The most prominent of all was from Kim Basinger,” Jacobs said. “I was really touched by it.”

Wilson said, tongue in cheek, that a national championship next month could lead his team into the realm of other champions--merchandising.

“We’re still waiting for a call from Reebok. But we gotta win first,” Wilson said.