School Won’t Field ‘Acadeca’ Team

After an unsuccessful effort to recruit a coach, Simi Valley High School will not field an academic decathlon team this year.

The registration deadline for the 19th annual Ventura County Academic Decathlon passed this week, and Simi Valley is not among the 15 schools with teams this year, according to county director Phil Gore.

Ken Hibbitts, who coached Simi Valley’s “acadeca” team for six years, stepped down after the 2000 competition. Hibbitts coached last year’s team with his wife, Sally, and said they both wanted time off after an intense season of competition. The team won the state competition and placed second in the national contest in San Antonio.

The school has tried for months to recruit a new coach, and even extended the search to retired teachers. But Barbara Hatton, the school’s assistant principal, said the small stipend offered is not enough to compensate a teacher for all the work. The most competitive teams study nearly every day for months and devote nights and weekends preparing for the contest.

“It’s very, very hard to find somebody,” Hatton said. “The amount of time they have to spend is inordinate. You don’t have a winner by just meeting with the kids and telling them to study one hour a day.”

Moorpark High School, which won the national title in 1999, also had difficulty recruiting a coach. Last year’s coaches, Michelle Bergman and Anna Karchem, decided not to coach this year because of the extensive time commitment.

But in September, when no teachers had stepped forward to lead the Moorpark team, former coach Larry Jones decided to return to the contest. Jones quit in 1999, in part because he believed the United States Academic Decathlon organization was turning the competition into a canned event that did not promote critical thinking.

The first round of Ventura County’s decathlon will take place Jan. 13 at Oxnard High School. The high schools set to compete are Camarillo, Buena, Channel Islands, Fillmore, Hueneme, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Oak Park, Oxnard, Rio Mesa, Royal, Santa Susana, Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Westlake.