Despite having only six members when most of the squads had nine, William J. Pete Knight High School finished 43rd in the Academic Decathlon. But more importantly, the 2015 team collected 11,357 more points this year than in 2014 which enabled the youngsters to earn the most improved award in the competition held by the Los Angeles County of Education (LACOE).
Each team should be composed of nine students: three “A” or honor students (3.750 – 4.00 GPA); three “B” or scholastic students (3.00 – 3.749 GPA); and three “C or below” varsity students (0.00 – 2.999 GPA).
The theme for the 2014–2015 Academic Decathlon® season was New Alternatives in Energy: Ingenuity and Innovation.
Knight competed against 55 teams from 43 different high schools from around Los Angeles County during two days of competition. (Some schools fielded two teams, one of which was called a junior squad and their scores did not count)
In the 2015 competition, the Knight team, collected 22,727 points which topped last year’s total by 11,357. According to coach Randy Bruss, who has advised the team for three years, unlike some of the teams, his squad did not have a class dedicated specifically to the decathlon but stayed after school for an hour each day and crammed a little study into the 20-minute homeroom session.
Bruss is excited about winning the most improved award and thinks that it will help him with recruiting for the 2016 competition. And thanks to the fact that four of the members are juniors and two are sophomores, next year’s team promises to be more experienced.
The overall LACOE competition was won by South Pasadena High School who along with six wild card teams will go on to compete at the state wide level in Sacramento on March 20.
The teams compete in the Super Quiz™, speech, interview, essay, and tests of knowledge events.
The top three scoring teams in each of three divisions will go on to the United States Academic Decathlon competition, which this year will be held April 16-18 in Garden Grove.
The nationals consist of 10 separate events including the Super Quiz.
In addition, the decathlon has added a division for middle school students called the Pentathlon. This event is comprised of five academic events: literature, mathematics, fine arts, science and social studies.
