For Champs, It’s Back to Books

Through most of her senior year at Moorpark High School, Academic Decathlon team member Julie Bristol has turned down countless movie invitations and skipped many a shopping excursion. She spent most days off hunched over books in a classroom, and her 18th birthday celebration last week consisted of little more than a study break.

But such sacrifices paid off Sunday, when Bristol and her eight teammates took first place at the California Academic Decathlon in Modesto. With a score of 48,603, the team edged out last year’s champion, El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills.

“I had never, ever came in first for anything in my life,” Bristol said. “It was the weirdest thing in the entire world. I just went, ‘You have to be kidding me.’”

The nine beaming teenagers got to bask in the glow of their victory at school Monday, giving each other high fives, entertaining news crews and posing behind a desk loaded with medals and trophies. But today, it’s back to the grindstone as the team prepares for the national competition next month.

“We’re tired, elated, and we have lots to do,” said their coach, Larry Jones, a world history teacher at the school. “They proved they were the best in the state; now we have to take on the nation.”

This year’s Academic Decathlon, themed “Understanding Others,” tests some of America’s brightest high school students in seven subjects, requiring them to become experts on subjects from Shakespeare’s sonnets to country music to the effect of the Internet on society. Fifty-five teams from 38 states will compete April 10-13 in Phoenix.

Moorpark High Principal Anna Merriman, sporting her “acadeca” T-shirt and gushing with pride, said the school will hold a send-off party for the team in two weeks but will put off big celebrations until after the national contest.

In the last five years, Moorpark’s team--led by Jones--has placed either first or second in the state championships. In 1999, the team went on to win the national title.

The students know they will face tough competition from teams in Texas, Illinois and Wisconsin, which also have earned high scores at the state level this year. But Jones said that in the nine years he has coached a team at Moorpark, he has never seen one more dedicated.

“This team is going to be the national champions,” he said, with an arm around his 16-year-old son, Nathaniel, a team member. “I know I’m putting more pressure on them now, but I know the caliber of what I have, and this is just an incredible group of people.”

One of the qualities that stands out about this year’s team is how close-knit it is, Jones said. A few of the students have been friends since childhood, and they say all of their personalities seem to just click. In addition to classroom study time, team members made a tradition of going to Starbucks before school and in the evenings, downing shots of espresso and quizzing each other nonstop.

“I don’t see how any team could be as close as we are,” said senior Dean Reich. “I know we can win.”

The possibility that the team might capture another national title also renewed rumors that Jones might give up coaching for good after this year. He has tried to leave before, but the decision never stuck.

Although he said he has not yet made up his mind, Jones admitted he is tiring of the work that goes into preparing the teens for competition. His last day off was Jan. 1. He averages 15 hours in his classroom daily.

“I can’t think of a better way for him to go out,” Merriman said. “But I also know Larry, and I don’t know what he would do without this.”