The purpose of the United States Academic Decathlon is to develop and provide academic competitions, curriculum, and assessment to promote learning and academic excellence through teamwork among students of all achievement levels.

The United States Academic Decathlon endeavors to provide enriching educational experiences that combine the relevant study of cultural and critical topics with strong reasoning and interpersonal skills. The value of the competitions, projects, and activities lies in each participant's stretching his or her capacities and bonding with others. The emphasis is on the personal growth of each student, who, by meeting the challenges with honesty and integrity, reaps the rewards of greater self-knowledge and self-confidence for the future.

(from the 1999-2000 Study Guide, United States Academic Decathlon)

OHS had an great Academic Decathlon team this year. It consisted of about 18 students, divided into 2 teams, which are subdivided into 3 categories: Honors (GPA 4.0+), Scholastic (GPA 3.0-3.9), and Varsity (GPA 2.0-2.9). The students were selected on basis of going to Period 0 every day until October, and selling candy. Then they were selected if they had a high score from doing their assignments: 3 "A" students, 3 "B" students, and 3 "C" students in each team.

The two Decathon teams this year had to study in the categories of Social Science, Language and Literature, Mathematics, Economics, Art, Music, Super Quiz Resource Guide, Essay, and practice their speeches and interviews for the competition. The first competition (essay, speech and interview) was held on January 8. The second part (Social Science, Art, Music. etc.) was held on February 5. The results were Simi Valley High School Team A winning (50,195 points), with Moorpark High School Team B finishing second (49,028). OHS Team A finished second in the White Conference, trailing 202 points from Rio Mesa Team A (34,010 points). OHS Team B finished third in the Blue Conference, scoring 29,118.

The Decathletes this year are as follows:

Team A Team B
Tristan Ivory (Honors) Natalie Jay (Honors)
John Kim (Honors) Alexis Javier (Honors)
Eddie Bellfield (Honors) Gabriel Valdez (Honors)
Tim Tibbs (Scholastic) Anna Young (Scholastic)
Matt Pasienski (Scholastic) Yukiko Uchida (Scholastic)
Sora Yoon (Scholastic) Paul Dang (Scholastic)
Bryan Bumacod (Varsity) Evita Huapaya (Varsity)
Alexander Nielsen (Varsity) Tanya Regalado (Varsity)
Brett Desalvo (Varsity)

Several of these students won awards in the competition, totaling 26 medals (14 more than last year).
This is what some of the students won:

Tristan won gold medals in music, speech, interview, and social science. He also won a silver medal on the essay, and a bronze medal in language and literature. He also took first place overall in the Honors category and received the Team Spirit Award.

Matt won gold medals in speech, economics, mathematics, music, and Super Quiz. He also won 1 silver medal on the essay, and bronze medals in art and social science. He took first place in the Scholastic category.

Brett won silver medals in speech, interview, and language and literature. He also won a bronze medal in social science and was fourth place in the Varsity category.

Bryan won a bronze medal in mathematics.

Tim won a silver medal in music.

Anna won a bronze medal in art and also received the Team Spirit Award.

Natalie won a gold medal on the essay.

Alexander won a gold medal in mathematics.

Paul won a gold medal in mathematics.

Evita won a bronze medal in the essay.

The teachers who helped the students prepare for the individual events are:

Teacher Subject
Mrs. C. DavisSpeech
Mrs. HilburnEssay, Language & Literature
Mr. BornemanArt, Social Science
Mr. Hilburn Mathematics
Mr. Flint Super Quiz (Sustainable Earth)
Mr. CrawfordMusic


Our thanks to Mrs. Throckmorton who coordinated the entire event, and to Mr. Conte, the Academic Decathlon coach, who helped prepare the students for the competition!

The 1999-2000 OHS Academic Decathlon Teams A and B

Would you like to join? It is very fun. You will learn to function as a team as well as expand your abilities. Your transcripts would also look very good when you go to college.

Please sign up with the Academic Decathlon for the 2000-2001 Ventura Academic Decathlon Competition! It'll be worth it.

Click here for a review of the topics in each Academic Decathlon subject for the 1999-2000 competition.

For further questions and if you want to join the team, see Mr. Conte at B-108. Remember, all students can join, even those with low GPAs!!

This page was created by Paul Dang

This is an extra-curricular organization web page. Opinions expressed on this page shall not be attributed to the District.