ACADEMIC DECATHLON TEAM READIES FOR STATE TOURNEY; EL CAMINO REAL COMPETING AGAINST 50 SCHOOLS FOR FOURTH CONSECUTIVE STATE TITLE.Byline: Greg Gittrich Daily News Staff Writer Just three days away from the state Academic Decathlon decathlon (dĭkăth`lŏn), in modern Olympic games, a contest for men held over two days and composed of 10 track-and-field events. , El Camino Real High School El Camino Real High School (also known locally as "ECR" and by some more recently as "ELCO") is a public secondary school located in the Woodland Hills district of the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. students capped off 25 consecutive days of cramming Tuesday and packed their lucky toy monkey and hot sauces for the scholarly showdown. ``You know you're an academic decathlete de·cath·lete n. An athlete who participates in a decathlon. when you have more stuffed animals and good luck charms than friends,'' quipped 17-year-old Jared Quinn as he studied a book of Henri Matisse paintings to prep for possible art questions. El Camino, the reigning city and national champion, is looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. its fourth consecutive state title and the right to once again represent California in the U.S. Academic Decathlon. But to reach the national stage, the Woodland Hills team will have to best 50 other high schools vying for the state's top honors this weekend at University of the Pacific in Stockton. For the past four weeks, the nine San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. students have had little time for anything but studying. Along with their normal class schedule, they've attended daily seven-hour study sessions since Feb. 12 to gear up for the state tournament. ``We've been working hard and are as ready as we are going to get,'' said 18-year-old Lisa Concoff. But as Lisa says, you can only rely on your brain for so much. She's turned to a stuffed green frog green frog Rana clamitans. , aptly named The Frog, for good luck. The team's top scorer, 17-year-old Nancy Fu, favors a toy monkey, and Jared has amassed more than two dozen varieties of hot sauce to fuel his mental fire. Led by monkey-toting Nancy, the first decathlete to earn the highest score in Los Angeles two years in a row, El Camino's team - Vadim Bendersky, Meeta Chakravarti, Rajesh Jaganath, Kamil Nagji, Michael Pak, Tara Paravar, as well as Lisa and Jared - face high expectations. The school has won six city titles in the 18-year competition, four state championships and last year's national crown. Coaches David Roberson and Mark Johnson say this year's team is ready and prepared for stiff competition, especially from Moorpark High School Moorpark High School, located in Moorpark, California, is a public high school in the Moorpark Unified School District and currently has an enrollment of 2,478 students.[1] , the Ventura County decathlon champions. The Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. will be represented by six teams at the state event. Along with El Camino, teams from Garfield, Belmont, Los Angeles, Marshall, and Palisades Charter high schools were invited to participate in the state event by virtue of the at-large rule. Applied for the first time last year, the at-large rule permits the seven highest-scoring, nonwinning schools in the state to participate in the event. Each decathlon team is composed of nine students in three different categories of grade point averages. Students compete as individuals in nine of the events, and the scores are compiled from the top two students from among three members of each GPA GPA abbr. grade point average Noun 1. GPA - a measure of a student's academic achievement at a college or university; calculated by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number attempted group. The topic areas include art, language and literature, mathematics, music, social science, history and economics. ``There's always pressure,'' Jared admitted. ``We might be another footnote in the annals of El Camino's history of winning. I'm going to have fun, and I'm going to bring Twister. If we win, we win. But I know I'm going to play some Twister.'' CAPTION(S): photo PHOTO Members of El Camino Real's Academic Decathlon team have lucky charms such as this stuffed monkey belonging to Nancy Fu. Tina Gerson/Daily News |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion