Decathletes in Training

Michael Pak furrowed his brow as he looked at the red ink scribbled all over his essay. Jared Quinn worried that he may have made too many hand gestures during an interview. Tara Paravar slowly turned the dogeared pages of a novel, searching for answers to an essay question.

Like great athletes in training, the defending national Academic Decathlon champions from El Camino Real High School were pumping up their mental muscles during a practice session Wednesday in preparation for this year’s competition.

Saturday, team members will match wits with their counterparts from other Los Angeles Unified School District high schools at the 18th Academic Decathlon.

The districtwide contest is the first round in the long road that could lead to the state championship in Stockton in March and ultimately to the U.S. Academic Decathlon in Orange County in April.

This year, for the first time, the LAUSD competition will be held over two weekends, getting underway Saturday at Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Los Angeles and concluding Feb. 6 at Los Angeles Southwest College with the Super Quiz contest.

Some 531 students from 49 senior high schools, six magnet high schools, two learning centers and two teams from the district’s Senior High Options Program are expected to take part in the battle of the brains.

Team members will be tested on their knowledge of art, language and literature, math, music, social science and economics as well as their essay writing, speaking and interviewing skills. The 10th event is the Super Quiz, in which students will answer questions about the human brain in a College Bowl-style format.

Hoping to live up to their name, the El Camino Real Conquistadors are spending up to 50 hours a week reading novels and poetry, writing essays, delivering speeches and honing their interviewing skills in preparation for Saturday’s first half of the district competition. Then they will have a week to cram for the Super Quiz.

The fact that the school won the national title last year and the state title for three straight years is not lost on this year’s team members, their teachers or their veteran coaches.

“There’s some added pressure to win, but we always have high expectations,” Coach Mark Johnson said. “We want our kids to do as well as they possibly can. If it’s winning, that’s great. If it’s second or third place that’s great too.”

For several months, the decathletes have met every day after school and on weekends, reading, writing and working equations in their grind to glory.

Their coaches keep them on schedule as they move from one subject to another. Their teachers help them analyze novels such as “Remains of the Day,” memorize economic principles and appreciate operatic scores. And their parents take turns bringing pizza, lasagna and ice cream to the classrooms where the students are holed up for hours on end.

“We have great support from our faculty and parents,” said Coach Dave Roberson, who considered stepping down last year but decided to return as coach to defend the title.

Roberson knows only too well that other teams are working just as hard to snatch the title from El Camino.

“There are two other schools in the district that have won national titles--Taft and Marshall--and there are other teams that are coming along like Belmont and Garfield. We have a lot of respect for those teams.”

At a practice session Wednesday, Michael listened intently as English teacher Naomi McCoy reviewed his essay and encouraged him to work on his clarity, structure and style. “I tried taking a different point of view, but I kind of dug myself into a hole,” he explained.

After the session, Michael admitted that the pressure of Saturday’s contest was beginning to get to him. “I try to put the competition out of my mind. I just hope that on that day, I will be at my peak performance.”

Assistant Principal Bob Marks, college counselor Ellena Turner and resource specialist Jane Cohen played the role of a three-judge panel as Jared talked about his school and community work. The interview was overseen by Lil Ruben, a former admission interview specialist for Northwestern University.

Jared appeared relieved when they congratulated him on his humor, poise and direct answers.

Even with all the pressure she’s under, Tara said she is grateful to be on the team.

“This has been a great experience. I am learning topics that I wouldn’t have come upon such as opera and some of the books we are reading,” she said. “I know that I’ll never have the chance to do this again in my life.”