Rain No Deterrent for Decathlon Team

Heavy rain may have washed out classes at Alemany High School on Tuesday, but it was business as usual for members of the school’s Academic Decathlon team.

While their classmates stayed home, nine of the 11-member Alemany team of juniors and seniors slogged their way to the Mission Hills campus Tuesday, hunkering down in a faculty lounge for a lively daylong study session with coaches Janie Prucha and Sharon Veenhof.

Alemany, which has won the Southern California Private Schools Academic Decathlon the past two years, will try for a repeat on its home turf Saturday as the school hosts the competition for the first time.

Twenty-five schools in three divisions will compete in the grueling 10-subject contest. The top school will proceed to the state finals in March at Cal Poly Pomona. Last year, after winning the private school competition, Alemany finished with the sixth-highest score in the state.

“It’s a tough workload. It’s like taking 10 extra classes on top of their six,” said Prucha. “They’ve been working hard all year, but this week they are eating, drinking and sleeping decathlon.”

Senior Walter Richter of Granada Hills said the team is trying not to succumb to the pressure of having to defend its title at home in front of what is expected to be a large group of friends and family.

“We try not to think about the fact that we are expected to win. We definitely hope to win, but we don’t want to pressure ourselves,” he said.

Walter’s teammate, fellow senior and co-captain Brian Van Dyk of Van Nuys, agreed. “This is a lot of work, but mostly we do it because it’s fun. You get to know a lot of people that otherwise you probably wouldn’t meet,” Brian said. “And it is great to compete.”

In addition to Walter and Brian, the other Alemany team members are Ryan Songco, Michael Pomeroy, Alex Erives, Gabriella Alecse, Sarah Goyak, Richard Abi-Habib, Tianna McClanahan, Steve Bush and Christina Ortega.

“This is a smart group and a fun group,” Prucha said. “They are not nerds by any stretch of the imagination.”

The Super Quiz part of the competition, which is open to the public, begins at 3 p.m. in the school’s Assembly Hall, 15101 San Fernando Mission Blvd.