El Camino Real Wins Academic Decathlon

El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills swept the 1995 Los Angeles Unified School District Academic Decathlon, taking first place overall, school officials announced Tuesday night at an awards banquet.

The El Camino decathlon team took first place in eight of the 10 events and had six out of the top nine individual scores. The team scored 49,467 points out of a possible 60,000.

Marshall High School’s team, the defending national champion, placed second, scoring 47,492.

Taft High School, also of Woodland Hills, took third, with 46,284.

Earlier this month, Alemany High School of Mission Hills won the academic decathlon for private schools in Los Angeles County.

The city public school decathlon competition took place Nov. 18. Tuesday night was the awards banquet. About 1,000 academic decathletes and their coaches, parents and friends gathered at the Westin Bonaventure in Downtown Los Angeles to hear who would represent the district in the state competition.

The academic decathlon is a 10-event battle of the brains that tests high school students in categories from economics to the fine arts. Each decathlon team is made up of nine students who are divided into three academic levels: “honors” decathletes are A-average students, “scholastic” decathletes have B averages and “varsity” students have C averages.

The honors squad of the winning El Camino Real team consisted of Justin Weaver, 17, of Woodland Hills; Dale Shuger, 18, of West Hills; and Eldar Brodski, 17, of Woodland Hills

The scholastic squad was Matthew Backes, 17, of West Hills; Sarah Sabolek, 17, of West Hills; and Jenny Stefanotty, 17, of Calabasas.

The varsity squad was Arabella David, 17, of West Hills; Isis Okowita, 18, of Woodland Hills; and Kasra Torabi, 17, of Woodland Hills. El Camino’s coach was David Roberson.

“I feel like I’m dreaming and I don’t want anyone to wake me,” said Sabolek after El Camino’s victory was announced. A crowd of parents and teachers broke into a chant: “E-C-R!”

“I feel great,” said David. “I’ll have adrenaline in my body for the next week.”

The Camino Real team was dressed to the nines, decked out in formal attire for the award banquet. “We decided we had to look good,” said Okowita.

Shuger, the top individual winner last year, originally did not want to return this year. “Obviously, I’m glad that Mr. Roberson changed my mind,” she said, after her third-place individual award was announced.

El Camino boasted many of the decathlon’s top individual scorers as well. Yozo Hida of University High School was the top honors class individual scorer, followed by Noah Bray-Ali of Venice High School and Shuger.

The top three individual scholastic class spots went to El Camino’s Sabolek, Stefanotty, and Backes.

Kami Lebaridian of Marshall High School was the top-scoring varsity squad member, followed by Torabi and Okowita of El Camino.

Coach Roberson kept repeating: “We looked good. We looked good.”

“I wasn’t expecting 49,000 points,” he added. “I knew we had a good team, but I was holding my breath up until the last minute.”

The first-place winners of each decathlon at the local level--held simultaneously across the nation in November--go on to represent their districts at the state competition. State champs then go on to the national academic decathlon.