High Five for Top Scholars

Hard work, dedication and support from parents and coaches paid off for scholars from Simi Valley High School and Moorpark High School, who placed first and second in this year’s California Academic Decathlon.

The satisfaction of achieving such a lofty goal will last a lifetime--as will the study skills, the experience in public speaking and essay writing, and the collection of fascinating factoids accumulated along the way.

As state champs the Simi Valley team will represent California at the national competition April 13-16 in San Antonio. The team from Moorpark won the national crown last year and fell just 21 points short of earning a return trip--50,011 points to Simi Valley’s 50,032.

There’s plenty of reason for all of Ventura County to be proud of its young scholars winning the state title for the second consecutive year. Los Angeles County teams won the state Academic Decathlon from 1992 to 1998 and Orange County schools won the title in 1990 and 1991, according to the contest’s executive director.

We offer congratulations to Simi Valley decathletes David Bartlett, Steve Mihalovits, Cary Opel, Jeff Robertson, Jennifer Tran, Michael Truex, Justin Underhill, Kevin White and Randy Xu and their coaches, Ken and Sally Hibbitts. And we offer appreciation to the parents, other teachers and fellow students who helped keep the team members going through months of rigorous preparation.

There’s no end to the lifelong rewards of a good, well-rounded education. Students from every school in the county--Academic Decathletes or not--will be winners if they put their schooling to work in the service of living satisfying lives and helping to build stronger communities.