‘A Once-in-a-Lifetime Thing’

Talk about a triumphant return.

The aptly named Conquistadores of El Camino Real High School received a heroes’ welcome Monday as the school marching band, cheerleaders and a dozen television crews turned their arrival into a boisterous celebration.

The exhausted teenagers, who on Sunday won the national academic decathlon in Providence, R.I., were surrounded by well-wishers as they emerged from their flight at Los Angeles International Airport, wearing broad smiles and clutching trophies.

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ruben Zacarias came to shake their hands. School board member Valerie Fields, who represents Woodland Hills, El Camino’s home, brought a bouquet of lilies and tulips.

Teacher Jim Centorino, who made the trip to Providence, played the theme from “Rocky” on a trumpet as the El Camino team posed for pictures and analyzed their effort for the benefit of the media.

The overnight celebrities handled the spotlight like pros, rattling off sound bites for TV reporters--some of them from Korean- and Chinese-language stations because of the team’s ethnic makeup.

“How do you feel coming home to this overwhelming show of support?” one reporter asked senior Adi Zarchi.

“You said it. Overwhelmed,” Zarchi, 17, fired back. “This is the culmination of nine months of work.”

“You’ll probably get to go to the White House,” the reporter said.

“No problem there.”

Senior Taimur Baig chimed in with a message for the president:

“Bill, if you are out there, we want to meet you.”

El Camino is the third Los Angeles school in five years to capture the national title. Decathlon officials said that Los Angeles schools excel in the competition because the district, the nation’s second largest, has a vast supply of talented students from which to pick.

El Camino beat decathlon teams from 37 other states, scoring 52,131 points out of a possible 60,000 during the two-day competition that tested knowledge in poetry, physics, economics, social studies and other subjects.

The victory came after two straight years of second-place finishes for El Camino teams.

The school is planning to hold a rally on campus this morning. The decathlon team members were planning to skip classes to enjoy one more day in the limelight.

They also were looking forward to a trip in June to Sacramento. The team will present one of their two trophies to Gov. Pete Wilson.

But even that trip seemed far off on Monday. Senior Steve Chae was thinking only of simple pleasures after nearly a year of grueling work.

“Sleep, party, chill, relax,” said Chae, 18. “Anything except worry about school. We all want to live in the moment. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”