Applause for the Whole Team

For the sixth year in a row, El Camino Real High School took top place in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Academic Decathlon. It’s an impressive winning streak, but winning is just the half of it.

To fully appreciate the accomplishment you had to be there for the competition’s crowning moment, the Super Quiz.

Teams from 59 LAUSD campuses competed game-show-style to answer fast-paced questions on a specific theme; this year’s was “Understanding the Self” and included philosophy, religion and psychology. The teams were cheered on by 2,500 fans--yes, screaming, foot-stomping fans. Seldom does academia generate such adrenaline, much less such adulation.

Like athletes everywhere, students on decathlon teams practice. For months they put in extra hours of study on nights and weekends. With coaching from teachers who also work extra hours, students prep for speeches, interviews and essays, all part of the competition. Decathletes regularly spend 20 hours a week studying a required syllabus published each year by officials of the U.S. Academic Decathlon.

At El Camino, preparation goes beyond the team members and even beyond the teachers who coach them. Other teachers pitch in to cover a coach’s class when needed; parents bake cookies and provide meals. Neighbors stop students and coaches on the street to congratulate them. Teamwork--and we’re talking a generous definition of team--is the secret behind the success of the Woodland Hills campus.

The El Camino team deserves applause for winning its sixth straight district title. So does North Hollywood High, which took fifth place--up from ninth last year--and, like El Camino, will go on to the California Academic Decathlon March 16-18 in Los Angeles.

Other San Fernando Valley schools heading to the state competition include Alemany High School in Mission Hills, which also won its sixth consecutive title in competition among 15 Southern California private schools, and Burbank High School, which placed third in the Los Angeles County competition.

Every decathlon team in the Valley deserves credit for putting in months of work, discipline and dedication. In a competition that encourages students to study, learn and work together as a team, there are no losers.