Davis High headed to state academic decathlon

FAIRFIELD — Davis High School once again will represent Yolo County in the state Academic Decathlon in Sacramento next month.

As the only school in the county to send a team to the regional competition in Fairfield over the weekend, Davis High was assured a spot in the state competition, but used the regional event as a warm-up and took home a lot of medals in the process.

Sophomore Natalia Khodayari led the way, earning a medal in all but one of the 10 subject areas, including three gold, three silver and three bronze, while Amanda Glazer and Sawyer Harris each took home four medals.

William Liu and Rami Abdullah Rashmawi each earned three medals and Don-Wook Shin took home two gold.

Students competed in 10 events during two days of competition at Rodriguez High School: art, economics, essay, interview, language/literature, math, music, science, speech and super quiz.

They’ve been studying and preparing all year long under the guidance of their coach, DHS science teacher David Van Muyden, who praised the students’ enthusiasm in the face of very busy schedules.

“We meet regularly,” he explained, “but these guys are really busy with other activities.”

Those activities include everything from team sports to music and more.

Unlike the traditional powerhouse schools, Davis High offers academic decathlon as an extracurricular activity, not as a class students can enroll in for the year. So Davis students meet at lunchtime or after school and form their own study groups, Van Muyden said.

It’s just one of the disadvantages DHS students face going up against regional powerhouses like Vanden, Benicia and Casa Grande high schools, who are able to field as many as two or three teams for the competition with all of the students spending class time learning their subjects.

Most also benefit from having a different schedule than Davis High — their first semester ends before winter break, so with finals out of the way, decathletes can begin preparing in earnest for the competition over vacation.

“Our semester ended two weeks ago,” Van Muyden noted.

And until finals were out of the way, he noted, studying for academic decathlon was limited.

“School work’s got to come first,” he said.

Still, even with those disadvantages, “we do well anyway,” Khodayari said.

She certainly did, taking home nine medals in her role as an alternate on the team.

Khodayari is one of a handful of enthusiastic decathletes who competed for Harper Junior High School last year when it was the only school in the state to field a team of ninth-graders. This year, these now-sophomores are serving as alternatives on Davis High’s team, and Van Muyden expects them to provide the enthusiasm and leadership needed in the future.

Academic decathlon teams in general are taking the hit from budget cuts throughout the state, said Gayle McLevich of the Yolo County Office of Education.

At the weekend competition, for example, there were 17 teams in all this year, down from 20 last year. And it’s the first time McLevich can recall Yolo County sending only one team to the event.

“It think it’s the first time we haven’t had three or four teams,” she said.

Last year, for example, Winters High School sent two teams and Davis High and Harper Junior High each sent one.

Budget cuts that have eliminated coaching stipends are just one of the issues that schools face, McLevich noted.

Winters High, for example, was long a regional powerhouse in academic decathlon, but when the coach retired, and the subject was eliminated as a class, it was tough to find someone else to take over.

At Davis High, Van Muyden has been coaching the team for four years and plans to return as long as students do.

“It’s fun,” he said, “and it’s really self-run by the kids. There’s a neat connection they have with the school and with each other.”

As for the competition itself, Van Muyden’s goal was to “make some noise,” and show those traditional powerhouses that Davis High can compete, not just as individuals, but as a team, and they did.

He hopes to make more noise at the state competition, which takes place March 16-17 in Sacramento.

“More medals, too,” he said.

If they do earn more medals, it will just add to the weekend’s impressive haul of 26 medals in almost every subject area:

Natalia Khodayari: Gold in art, speech and economics; Silver in music, science and super quiz; and Bronze in interview, language/literature and math.

Amanda Glazer: Gold in economics and interview; Silver in math and super quiz.

Sawyer Harris: Silver in economics, math and science; Bronze in music.

William Liu: Silver in math; Bronze in interview and science.

Rami Abdallah Rashmawi: Gold in interview; Bronze in music and speech.

Don-Wook Shin: Gold in math and science

Jose Arzaluz: Silver in interview

Decathlon teams are composed of three “A” students (based on grade-point average), three “B” students and three “C” students.

— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8051. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy

Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=134103

Posted by Anne Ternus-Bellamy on Feb 6 2012.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 01:17:01 PM PDT
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