The Academic Decathlon team competed at nationals May 2-3 in Des Moines, Iowa.
“They usually hold it in a large convention center,” head academic decathlon coach Mike Katalenich said.
The team this year was comprised of almost all first-year students and one returning student.
“We have had more freshman on this team than we have ever had, and so a lot of what next year is going to look like is taking what experience we had this year and taking it into next year,” Katalenich said.
While they waited for nationals to come around, the team began to mentally prepare for the long competition they had ahead of them. This year’s theme was climate.
“It is like you are taking eight classes in one class, so I had to make sure that I studied for all of the subjects, but it was fun,” junior Regina Jordan said.
During class, they studied with a variety of different tools, such as flash cards, study guides and educational games like Blooket.
“Every year they give you a resource guide and basically that’s like the bible of Acadeca, and you read these and make flashcards out of them which was a really good tool for me to use,” Jordan said.
While the team may not have grown substantially as they would’ve liked, Katalenich is proud of them regardless.
“The thing I am most proud of this year is the fact that most people on the team are first-timers and they made it to nationals,” Katalenich said. “Seeing them be able to pull it together for nationals was very cool.”
The team ended up going home with one medal but are hoping to do even better next year.
“Next year I hope to get my science scores up because I do really like science, but it is really tough and there is a lot of things you can get lost in,” Jordan said. “I hope to build up good studying skills, those always have room for improvement.”
