A Distinguished Debut For Academic Decathlon

CB’s Academic Decathlon wins big in their first appearance at the Sacramento Academic Decathlon competition.

CB has proudly hosted numerous ongoing extracurricular activities, sports, groups and clubs. But new to the 2012-13 school year is the Academic Decathlon team.

Many other high schools have already had Academic Decathlon teams, but this year was CB’s first entry into the local competition.

But what exactly is the Academic Decathlon? The Sacramento  Academic Decathlon is an annual competition from various high schools in the Sacramento area usually held at Inderkum High School. Students who enter the decathlon enter as a nine person team, facing other schools through subject exams, speeches, and a Super Quiz — a public group quiz.

Each decathlon has a theme on which the events are based. This year’s them was Russia.

The winning team of the event wins by doing the best in all of these and goes on to the California Academic Decathlon. The winner of that event earns a spot in the United States Academic Decathlon.

Members of our Academic Decathlon team worked hard to train for this event at Inderkum.

“It was a lot of hard work but the experience was beyond rewarding,” says decathlete Ryan Prouty (‘14).

Of the 21 schools competing, Christian Brothers came in ninth place. This is a great achievement especially because it is our first year with an academic decathlon team. Our team did better than Saint Francis High School, who has been participating in the academic decathlons for years.

Dana Kimball (‘14) achieved a gold medal for his success in mathematics, and Ted Datanagan (‘14) and Kevin Camacho (‘13) earned silver medals in interview and art, respectively.

“It was a fun experience,” says the gold medal winner Kimball. “My favorite part was the super quiz — it was really exciting.”

One thing is for sure, the team worked hard to achieve what they have done at the competition and anticipate on doing even better next year.

“I didn’t know what to expect since it was our first year,”says head coach Ms. Holly Keller. “But I knew we worked hard for the competition.”

If you see someone who is on the Academic Decathlon team, be sure to congratulate them for their achievements. If you are interested in joining the team for next year, see Ms. Keller in Room 503.