Moorpark’s Academic Champions to Meet Bush

Securing an appointment with President Bush is no easy task, but on Tuesday, between 2:55 and 3:55 p.m., the nation’s commander in chief will set aside talks of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction to chat with Moorpark High School’s national championship academic decathlon team.

“That’s big time!” an excited Lindsay Hebert said minutes after her coach informed her of the White House meeting. “We get to talk to the most powerful person in the whole world.”

Hebert, along with teammates Nathaniel Jones, Kevin Randolph, Grant Volk, Ashlee Scott, Paul Ideal, Adam Abed, who all graduated recently, and Tracy Yagi and Max Geiger, now seniors, beat out 37 teams and hundreds of the nation’s brightest students to win at this year’s championships in April.

Since its victory, the team has been honored at pep rallies and fund-raisers, and next month members will serve as grand marshals of the Ventura County Fair parade.

“There’s been a lot of people supporting us and encouraging what we do,” Jones said. “This is a big honor and it means a lot to us.”

It is the second time in four years that Moorpark has won the national title and a visit to the White House. In 1999, coach Larry Jones accompanied his students to visit President Clinton on the White House putting green. They got within 10 feet but did not get to talk to him, Jones said.

“All the sports teams get recognized at the White House and it’s nice that a national academic team is being recognized,” said Jones, who retired as coach this year after leading the team for 13 years. “This time they said it’s a personal meeting.” Hebert said she was surprised by the president’s quick response.

“The Angels just got there a little while ago,” Hebert said of last year’s World Series baseball winners. “I figured if the Angels waited that long, then we definitely would.”

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said he sent a letter requesting a meeting with the president in April and followed up with a phone call.

“I’m very excited about the program that Larry runs out there,” Gallegly said. “For the president to block out that amount of time to these students clearly indicates how he feels about public education.”

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer also sent a letter to Bush. But there doesn’t seem to be any party favoritism here. Boxer’s letter was sent a few days later.

Through fund-raisers and several large donations from area businesses, the team’s expenses for the Washington trip are covered, Jones said.

For now, the teens are wondering what they will talk about and pondering what to wear.

Hebert was thinking she would wear the same suit she wore during her decathlon interview, but perhaps not.

“Maybe I’ll do something more patriotic,” she said.