Lakeport >> On February 7, Clear Lake High School’s Academic Decathlon Team took home a first place trophy at Lake County’s annual competition, as well as 31 individual medals out of the 48 awarded. It was, by any standard, an impressive performance.
Coach James Rogers attributes a lot of the team’s success to luck. “I was surprised how many [medals] we got and I was really surprised how well my juniors did,” said Rogers. “It was just one of those kind of things that this year it really worked out.”
Of course, luck is often the result of preparation. Like a sports coach, Rogers actively sought out students to put together the most successful team possible. “Fortunately for me, I was able to really search out and get some of my top students and that doesn’t always work,” he said. “I probably recruited half of the team.”
This years team members are Dakota Durbin, Cord Falkenberg, Nate Falkenberg, Julie Ann Mather, Narumi Mitchell, Linda Ralosky, Savannah Rasmussen, Emily Seeley, Kennedi Syphax, Melissa Thibeau, Noelani Urquiza and Chris Vincent.
In previous years, some students weren’t able to dedicate their time to the Academic Decathlon because of other commitments. “Half the time you just wish the right people could be on the team because they’re too busy,” Rogers said. “It was good to have so many people committing themselves really early.”
Since the Clear Lake High School Academic Decathlon Team won the county competition, they’re heading to Sacramento on March 19 to compete with other schools from across California at the state level. They’ll be facing some steep competition. “There are schools that have double honors classes for this,” Rogers said. “The group that won our division at the state last year had over 900 graduated the previous year. That’s more than all the high schools in our county.”
But Rogers isn’t worried about his students. “They’re ready for that competition.”
There were obstacles along the way, but the team overcame them all. Despite a good number of students joining Rogers, time was still the biggest thing working against the Clear Lake High School Academic Decathlon Team. “They’re all so busy. They’re involved with sports and dance and music,” said Rogers. “The people who do this are just involved in so many things and for the seniors, they’re working on their senior projects. Half the group are with me in AP English and others are working with me in AP History and they have a huge study load in addition to this so it is a lot of work.”
For the past 20 years Rogers has been coaching the Academic Decathlon Team, but it was only last year that the school finally began offering a class for the competing students. “It was always after school until I started a class last year,” Rogers said, explaining that the team was only able to get together a few days a week in prior years. He now teaches Humanities, where his students learn about history, art and literature every day. This helped them to better compete with rivals who already had classes in place, such as the Upper Lake and Lower Lake high schools.
“We were competitive but it’s so hard to compete against someone who meets every day,” said Rogers.
Another factor that contributed to a successful competition was this years Academic Decathlon theme, “New Alternatives in Energy: Ingenuity and Innovation”. The timing was perfect. “They just fit innovations in our Humanities course,” said Rogers. “That was luck. It didn’t work as well last year and it won’t work as well next year.”
Rogers explained innovations as the major developments in the areas of science and art, though his instruction focused on the latter. “Especially in the arts and music, it’s like pivotal jumps in the way music is written,” he said. “And then of course really the invention and the development of the piano or the innovations of certain artists. They make these leaps and it changes the arts world forever.”
Rogers doesn’t work alone to get his students competition ready. For the subjects outside of his expertise he has to rely on other teachers to instruct the students. “The science and math are things I have to farm out. They pretty much do it on their own or with the help of the other teachers,” he explained. “For instance, our science teacher had taught these guys really well.”
The Academic Decathlon is more than just a competition; it provides valuable insight for the team’s future college students. “I think part of it for me is, these kids are going to be going off to big schools next year, major universities and it’s kind of a great step for them just to see what the competition is throughout the state,” said Rogers. “It’s a terrific experience … It’s really a national competition and to be part of something just beyond the county or division … It’s a very good introduction to their next step in education.”
After the completion of this years Academic Decathlon Rogers plans to retire from his teaching position and let someone else take the reigns. And that’s part of what made such a successful county competition so exciting. “I think some of the kids said they really wanted to make sure they won it for me,” said Rogers. “That’s never been my goal. I’ve wanted it for them … They worked a little extra hard for that.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
