Buoyed by an impressive win in regional competition, the Casa Grande High School Academic Decathlon team now is preparing to compete in the state championship in Sacramento March 12-14.
"I was so proud of how they did in the regionals," said Donna Reed, the team's coach. "Now, we'll be looking at our county scores, and seeing our strengths as well as areas we need to improve. This is one area where we rely on our captain, Kathleen Schaefer, and assistant captains, Suryatej Mukkamalla, Elvis Wong and Chloe Arnold."
Casa Grande fielded two teams in the North Bay Regional competition, which took place at Rodriguez High School in Fairfield the last two weekends. Casa's top team, Team One, won the competition, with 42,539 out of a possible 60,000 points, thereby edging friendly rival Vanden High School of Fairfield, which had 40,630 points. Casa's Team Two placed fifth, with 34,402 points, but will not advance to state competition, which allows only one team per school.
Last year, Vanden won the regional competition, while Casa Grande's Team One finished second, and went on to place 13th in the state competition.
This year, Casa Grande won the Super Quiz Relay and team members won 85 medals - 28 gold, 33 silver and 24 bronze.
Academic Decathlon teams consist of students from three academic levels: honors (grade-point average of 3.75 to 4.00), scholastic (3.00 to 2.74) and varsity (below 3.00). Casa senior Kathleen Schaefer won the honors competition with 8,204 out of a possible 10,000 points, and senior teammate Suryatej Mukkamalla followed with 8,040 points.
Casa senior Caitlin Quinn finished third in the scholastic category, with 6,838 points. Senior Ryan Smith won the varsity competition, with 6,777 points, and senior Daniel Weidlich was third, with 6,599 points.
Team members were very pleased with their performance.
"I figured that they would be exhausted afterward, but they were ecstatic and wanted to party," Reed said.
Rather than emphasize winning, Reed places more importance on the students trying their best - and enjoying the experience.
"Aligned with my philosophy of competition, it didn't matter that we won," she said. "It was good that they went in and enjoyed themselves."
Reed feels that this year's team is particularly energetic and closely knit.
"They work extremely hard, have a lot of enthusiasm and have a lot of fun. There's a lot of non-stop joking around with each other and they are much tighter than last year's team was. Also, there's a general feeling that they &‘have each other's back,'" Reed said.
The team is strong in many areas, including speech, essay writing, social sciences, mathematics, economy, art and the Super Quiz Relay, she said.
Reed also identified areas for improvement.
"Our scores were good in interviews, but we have room for improvement, and we will attack language and literature because we can do better," she said.
Reed, a biology and chemistry teacher, took over last year from Rick Pillsbury, who coached the team for 25 years. His teams were highly successful, winning eight state championships, and helped Casa Grande, in general, gain widespread attention. He helped Reed to make the transition to head coach last year, but still, she faced an enormous challenge in trying to build upon his legacy.
"Last year, I felt that I was thrown out there, and had a lot of blinders on. They year, I had a much better idea of what would happen in the competition," Reed said.
Pillsbury, still is in the process of phasing out from his Academic Decathlon coaching duties. This year, he helped coach science and mathematics, two subjects he still teaches at Casa Grande, as well as art.
The state championship will culminate with the Super Quiz Relay at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, at 1515 J St., on March 13 and the following day, an awards ceremony will be held there. Casa's Academic Decathlon team is seeking financial support to help it make the trip to Sacramento. For more information, contact the school at 778-4677.
(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)
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