Decathletes Get Rousing Welcome Home

Cheerleaders performed, band members played and television cameras converged Tuesday for a victory rally at Moorpark High School to honor the exhilarated and exhausted national Academic Decathlon champions.

Their multiple medals clinking together around their necks, Moorpark’s eight decathletes paraded through a tunnel of blue flags as a crowd of students, parents, teachers and school officials gave them a standing ovation in the packed school gymnasium.

“I’m still getting all caught up in the excitement of the win,” team member Valerie Lake said. “And people are starting to feel like it’s an accomplishment for the whole school.”

Principal Max Friedman said Moorpark’s win is the most exciting thing that has happened to the community. “These eight students did the school, the county and the state very proud, because they carried the torch of the state of California to the national competition,” he said.

And that’s where, after two days of taking tests, giving speeches and doing interviews, Moorpark’s squad beat 38 teams from throughout the nation and became the first Ventura County high school to take the top prize. They surpassed their main rivals from Texas by nearly 400 points, even though the Texas team was favored to win.

Team members Lake, Ari Shaw, Arturo Barragan, Alexandra Dove, John Ellis, Nick Lange, Mitul Patel and Rebecca Wershba scored 50,225 out of 60,000 points in the 18th annual decathlon, which tested students’ knowledge in topics ranging from calculus to consumer spending.

They also left the competition in Orange County with thousands of dollars in scholarships and dozens of individuals medals.

During the celebration Tuesday, several school and political officials made presentations to the winners. Moorpark City Councilwoman Debbie Rogers gave the students tickets to the prom and told them to “go back to being teenagers and have some fun.”

And Johanna Williams, an aide to California Sen. Barbara Boxer, read a letter from the senator urging President Clinton to invite the team to the White House.

“Your achievements will inspire thousands of students to hit the books and study even harder,” she said.

That’s exactly what Moorpark’s squad has to do now--catch up in their regular classes.

“I’m so far behind in my schoolwork,” Wershba said. “It’s going to take a while to catch up.”