Laguna Hills Ties for 2nd in Academic Quiz

Their team includes a baseball pitcher, a volleyball player, a few basketball hotshots, a wrestler and an offensive tackle.

It’s the Laguna Hills High School academic decathlon team.

Wait, aren’t these the kids who are supposed to read all day and do calculus in their sleep? Team member Jamie Miller--known as “Piggy” to his soccer teammates--thinks otherwise.

“We’re not some nerds,” Miller said.

Make no mistake about it, though. The Laguna Hills team wins and wins often. Team members take their decathlons very seriously, studying until the last minute with flash cards and skipping social activities that draw other teams.

Saturday, after months of preparation, they tied for second place in the Super Quiz portion of the California Academic Decathlon in Stockton, a game show-style contest held in front of rows of cheering parents and friends.

Laguna Hills’ squad tied with Sacramento County’s Bella Vista High School at the Super Quiz, which was held at the University of the Pacific’s basketball arena. It was the last event of the two-day competition, and the only event open to the public.

Taft High School of Woodland Hills and West High School of Torrance tied for first place, scoring 5,400 points out of a possible 6,000. Laguna Hills, representing Orange County, scored 4,900.

The Super Quiz accounts for only 10% of the competition’s total points, so coaches were optimistic the Laguna Hills team may still win the overall title.

“We’re still in the hunt,” said Kathy Lane, who coaches the Laguna Hills Hawks with fellow English teacher Roger Gunderson. The event’s organizers will announce winners of individual and team medals today.

The Laguna Hills team began the competition against 378 students from 42 other teams Friday. After nervously cramming all week, contestants took exams in six areas: mathematics, science, social science, economics, languages and literature, and fine arts.

Contestants were quizzed on this year’s topic, “The Documents of Freedom,” 19 historical texts ranging from the Mayflower Compact to the 1978 Camp David Accord between Israel and Egypt.

Each academic decathlon team is divided evenly among students with A, B and C grade-point averages.

The Laguna Hills team members are Miller, Genevieve Go, Alex Fung, Romy Christensen, Bryan Cotta, Megan Ferrell, Terry James, Loren Colin and Renn Amstead. All are seniors.

Under a clear sky and hot sun outside the pavilion before the Super Quiz on Saturday, team members said they felt relieved to be so close to the end of a competition that they have anticipated since last summer.

“I just want it to be over!” Cotta said.

In December, the Laguna Hills team beat 47 other squads to win the Orange County competition and advance to the state contest in Stockton.

Taft High, an academic powerhouse that in 1993 won the statewide crown and took second place in the national contest, is the favorite to win here. Taft has won its district title four times and has gone undefeated in its three trips to the state finals.

The Laguna Hills team took the state title in 1990 and 1991. The school has represented Orange County in the state competition every year for the past six years.

Laguna Hills High Assistant Principal Kary Bemoll said competition is fierce just to land a spot on the school’s decathlon team. “There are a lot of kids that try out and don’t make it,” she said.

Fung, for one, tried out annually since his freshman year before making the team this year, Bemoll said.

The California Academic Decathlon originated 14 years ago as an outgrowth of an Orange County competition. Former Orange County Supt. of Schools Robert Peterson created the contest in the 1970s as a way to encourage students to study a variety of subjects.

The competition is sponsored by a nonprofit organization funded by corporate donations.

James, a stocky senior, plays offensive tackle for the varsity football team. Last December, he had to compete in a California Interscholastic Federation conference playoff game the night before the county academic decathlon championships--and still pulled through on his tests, his coaches said.

Amstead is on the wrestling team, and Christensen participates in basketball, softball and volleyball. Miller, who pitches for the baseball team, said he studies to the sounds of “punk music.”

Team captain Ferrell wields an intimidating decathlon pedigree. Her older brother, Jeff, a member of Laguna Hills’ team the last time the school carried home the state title, notched the highest individual score in last year’s state finals.

Gunderson called Ferrell “a selfless leader” who helped other teammates improve their scores.

As quickly as they sat down Friday night for dinner, the coaches and the team rose to rush back to the Holiday Inn where they were staying to prepare again for the next day’s competition. While other teams attended an ice-cream social that night to meet and exchange gifts, the Hawks practiced speeches and studied flash cards to prepare for the Super Quiz.

“We came to win,” coach Lane explained. Laguna Hills’ hard-nosed rival to the north, Taft, also skipped the party.

Hawk team members said they take winning very seriously.

They began putting together study packets last summer for the rest of the team, Colin said, and they met after school and on weekends for about 20 hours a week before the competition.

Ferrell’s parents hosted the students at their home for numerous weekend and after-school study sessions. They said they were pleased with the team’s performance Saturday and with the competition’s importance to their children.

“I’d rather have my kids go through four years of (the Orange County Academic Decathlon) than go to class,” said Todd Ferrell, Megan’s father.

Questions From State Decathlon

Questions posed to high school teams at the 15th California Academic Decathlon Super Quiz on Saturday in Stockton included the following.

1. Taking the Fifth Amendment refers to a person exercising his right to:

a. Protection from self-incrimination

b. Protection from double jeopardy

c. Compensation for seizure of property

d. Be represented by an attorney

e. Protection from cruel or unusual punishment

2. The one document that clearly calls for international disarmament as necessary to attain world peace is the:

a. Atlantic Charter

b. Preamble to the U.N. Charter

c. Camp David Accord

d. Seneca Falls Declaration

e. Universal Declaration of Human Rights

3. According to the Declaration of Independence, who shall judge the “rectitude of our intentions?”

a. King George II

b. British Parliament

c. Colonial legislatures

d. Future generations of Americans

e. The Supreme Judge of the World

4. According to the preamble to the U.N. Charter, why should people unite their strength and live in peace?

a. To spread democracy

b. To put an end to the special privilege

c. To keep the Germans from expanding (their power)

d. To promote social progress

e. To ensure free trade

5. Frederick Douglass presented the idea that the right to vote is:

a. Necessary for economic success

b. The moral obligation of all people

c. The natural aftermath of a tragic war

d. Protection against the mob

e. More benevolent than just

Answers:

1. a 2. a 3. e 4. d 5. d