After making it to State competitions, the School Board will recognize the Academic Decathlon team on Tuesday.
“It’s a pretty good honor. This is a unique experience that most people don’t get,” junior Connor Mire said. “I think that when the opportunity comes, it’s important to take it because you never know when you will have an opportunity like this again.”
This marks the first year the AcaDec team has won district and regional competitions, as well as the second time they have made it to the regional level in the last 20 years.
“MHS didn’t have much of a team over the past twenty or so years,” head coach Tanya Maness said. “This year Mr. Austin joined me. That was a wonderful addition. Between him and I, we’ve advanced to State 25 times.”
The competitions consist of 10 events over two days. Every student competes in all events during the district competition, with everything being scored from 0 to 1,000. The scores are added up to make the team score, which is used to rank the entire team.
“I can want to win all day, but I’m not the one doing the stuff,” coach Brandon Austin said. “I’m not giving the speech. I’m not taking the test. So you need people that want to win and are as invested as you are.”
A different theme is selected every year and applied to literature, art, social studies, economics, music, math, science, interviews, essays, and speeches for events.
“This year’s theme is going to be a very hard thing to beat in the coming years,” Connor said. “It was technology and humanity. The subjects mostly focused on stuff like sci-fi, music, and science fiction books.”
Competitions are split up into 3 levels — honors, scholastic, and varsity — based on GPA. On the state level, three students competed in honors, two competed in scholastic, and one competed in varsity.
“We need all kinds of students,” Maness said. “This isn’t just for the students who always make the A honor roll. It’s an unusual mix of all types of students; athletes, ROTC, orchestra, band, AP students, etc. We have nerdy fun, and we become a little like a dysfunctional family.”