Decathletes Ready to Give It Their Best

Their team may have posted a state score that surpassed all others in the nation, but Moorpark High School’s academic decathletes know that this week’s national competition in Erie, Pa., won’t be a cakewalk.

They will face hundreds of bright kids from 36 other states, who -- like the Moorpark teens -- have spent the last few months boning up on everything from mathematics to music composition to oceanography.

And more important, Moorpark’s state score -- the highest in the country at 49,910 out of a possible 60,000 -- won’t matter. At nationals, all the teams start with a clean slate, and this highly successful group must prove itself once more.

A couple of nights before the big event, team members were doing their best to study, relax and tell themselves that no matter what the outcome, the experience is what matters.

“We’re just really, really ready to take the test and show what we know,” Moorpark senior Lindsay Hebert said shortly before leaving for Erie on Sunday. “The last few weeks, I think we’ve all been kind of restless, but everyone’s just giving it their best right now.”

The theme of this year’s Academic Decathlon is “Understanding Nature.” Thirty-seven teams will compete today and Friday in Erie, with the winner to be announced at a banquet Saturday.

Since last fall, the Moorpark team has spent hundreds of hours poring over study materials, reciting speeches, writing essays and taking practice quizzes.

There has been virtually no time for social events, and students have given up extra-curricular activities and after-school jobs.

If the work wasn’t hard enough, the kids are also dealing with college entrance issues and Advanced Placement testing, said Coach Larry Jones, whose classroom had become a second home for him and the students.

“Trying to make college decisions and trying to win a national championship take a lot of work,” Jones said. “There just isn’t any break.”

But the Moorpark team, which has made it to state championships eight times since 1993 and won the national title in 1999, gets the sort of treatment commonly reserved for football and basketball stars.

Next week, school officials will hold a “Rally of the Champions” for the local team, Principal Anna Merriman said.

“It’s quite an honor for any school to go as far as we have,” Merriman said.

Last year, Merriman arranged for a white stretch limo to take the students and their coaches to the airport. Recently, community members showed up in droves for a fund-raiser held at a McDonald’s.

“I had a little girl come up to me and say, ‘I wanna be just like you when I grow up. I wanna be smart,’ ” Hebert said.

And every night, when the students were holed up in Coach Jones’ classroom, parents and PTA members brought them dinner.

This week, school administrators, parents, relatives, friends and even the mayor plan to pack Erie’s Warner Theater to root for their team during Super Quiz, the only event open to the public.

But if the kids are overcome with anxiety, they aren’t showing it: “Maybe it’s just stupidity, but I’m not nervous,” said Grant Volk, 17. “I’ve devoted myself to this 110% and so has everyone on this team. We’ve prepared for it and will do our best.”