Academic Decathletes earn near perfect score
Residents invited to support team at speech showcase tonight
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

SYLVIE BELMOND/Acorn Newspapers SMART AND SHARP- The Moorpark Academic Decathlon A Team members, along with Coach Larry Jones and Moorpark Unified School District Superintendent Ellen Smith, take a moment to rejoice on Tuesday. Both the A and B teams won the county Academic Decathlon competition last weekend. The A Team is preparing to compete at the state competition scheduled to take place in Sacramento early next month.

Coach Larry Jones was curved over his small desk in the Academic Decathlon team's classroom at Moorpark High School on Tuesday morning, carefully recounting the scores that his team earned at the county competitions last weekend.

The 15-member Moorpark High School Academic Decathlon team achieved top scores in almost every category at the 2008 Ventura County competition.

However, Jones and the nine students who will go on to compete at the state level in Sacramento didn't take much time to celebrate their accomplishments. They were right back at work preparing for the next challenge on Tuesday afternoon.

"The students have the highest score in the country," said Jones. "The A team earned 51,954 points out of a total of 60,000, which is just 400 points shy of the all time record," he said. The B team, composed of six students gathered 46,567 points.

Oxnard High School earned third place and will also go on to compete at the state level with 40,019 points. This year's theme is the Civil War.

"Our lowest score is higher than last year's higher score, that's how great this team is," said the coach who recently received the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce Legend Award for his dedication to his students.

Local decathletes are successful because Moorpark has a history of championships, said Moorpark Unified School District Superintendent, Ellen Smith.

Students who join the team know that they can be champions and they have a successful coach who knows how to prepare them, she said.

They also know there's a tremendous amount of work and they need to fully dedicate themselves to preparing for the competitions, Smith said. "They come in with their eyes open and they really put the nights on."

Furthermore, Moorpark decathletes have a supportive group of parents and they receive much support from Jones and his wife, Smith added.

In addition to winning top honors as a team, Senior John Grasel and Junior Kris Sankaran each achieved the highest overall score in their respective categories.

Winning is a team effort because students mentor one another, said Justin Levan.

The decathletes gathered around a calculator outside of class Tuesday to determine how many medals they'd won, tallying 111 medals for the A team. They didn't have the final numbers of the B team, which was not present in class that day.

To support the winning decathletes, residents are invited to attend a speech and interview showcase event and fundraiser in the Moorpark High School Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. tonight.

Cost to attend is $5. Proceeds will help to sponsor the team's expenses as students go on to represent Ventura County in Sacramento next month.

"It costs about $18,000 per year to support the activities of the academic decathlon team," said Jones.

When asked if he's going to coach again next year, Jones, who spends several hours each day to help the team study, said ""Don't ask a woman who just had a baby if she's going to get pregnant again."

Moorpark decathletes have a history of success. They won county championships nine times since 1994. They won the state contest in 1999, 2002 and 2003 and were achieved top scores in the national championships in 1999 and 2003.