9 L.A. County Schools Going to State Decathlon

Academic Decathlon teams from Beverly Hills, Burbank and El Camino Real high schools were delighted to learn Thursday that they were on their way to the statewide competition of intellectual skill in March.

Beverly Hills High was the top-scoring public school in a competition that included all of Los Angeles County except the Los Angeles Unified School District. The team scored 46,029 points out of a possible 60,000.

“There is nothing better than getting to state,” the school’s veteran coach John Borsum said. “It’s always a pleasure to work with the best kids anyone can ever ask for.... I’m in awe of them.”

Close behind was Burbank with 45,572 points. Because of its high score, the squad was chosen to represent the county in the state competition as a wild-card team.

“They’re marvelous,” coach Valerie Beidelman said of her Burbank students. “I knew they’d be successful, but this is wonderful -- what’s happening to us.”

Because the Los Angeles district is so big, it holds its own contest. The winner of that competition, El Camino Real in Woodland Hills, scored 49,336 points.

Also going as wild-card teams to the state competition from L.A. Unified are Taft, John Marshall, Reseda, Granada Hills Charter, Venice and Los Angeles high schools.

The state competition will be March 12-14 in Sacramento. The winner will go to the U.S. Academic Decathlon in Boise, Idaho, in April.

The Academic Decathlon is a rigorous scholastic contest in which students from all over the country compete in several subjects, based on a theme.

This year’s theme is “America: Growth of a Nation,” and topics include art, economics, literature and math. Students are judged on their essays, interviews and speeches and on the game-show-style Super Quiz, which the public can attend.

Last year, Moorpark High School in Ventura County won the state and national Academic Decathlon competitions. But this year, after the retirement of its coach, Moorpark did not enter a team.