Aca Deca team questing for a state title

SANDPOINT — While Academic Decathlon is not technically a sport, it’s every bit as competitive as any football, basketball or baseball competition at Sandpoint High School, although these decathletes use the mind instead of the body.

While the baseball team fields grounders, the Aca Deca team fields tough questions, like this: Who was the interim president Francisco Madero installed at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution? (See the end of the story for the answer).

While football players study a playbook, Aca Deca members study a three-inch thick binder, which this year focuses on Latin America and Mexico, including everything from music, arts, language and literature to economics and social sciences. The brutally tough math questions, of course, know no language or heritage.

While the basketball team’s chief rival is Moscow, the Aca Deca’s nemesis is Centennial High School in Meridian, with whom they’ve been battling tooth and nail recently for state titles.

Perhaps senior Jonas Cafferty, who ranks second in his class and carries a 4.268 GPA, says it best.

“It’s a competition for people that prefer scholastics to athletics,” answers Cafferty when asked to describe Aca Deca.

Cafferty should know, he won the Math Gold in the Honors division at a recent invitational meet in Priest River, and was also a key contributor off the bench for the Bulldog boys basketball team. He has narrowed down his college choices — where he’ll study engineering — to Stanford, Duke, and last but certainly not least, Idaho.

Cafferty is one of 11 SHS students who will compete Friday and Saturday at the state Aca Deca competition at Boise State University. Sandpoint narrowly lost to Centennial last year, and is intent on duplicating its 2006 state title, and advancing to the national meet in Memphis, Tennessee.

“We have a long-standing rivalry with Centennial. Last year we won six of the nine overall competitions, but still lost,” says coach Mary Bird, who believes this year’s team has a great chance at winning state. “They all get along together and share common goals. They’re really focused on improving individual scores, which in turn helps the team.”

Leading the team is junior Tommy Jacobs, who carries a robust 4.2 GPA, and who finished first overall at the Priest River competition, breaking the Sandpoint individual record for most overall combined points in the 10 events.

“I just want to help the team as much as I can,” says Jacobs humbly. “It’s a team competition, not individual.”

Besides just winning state, the team also wants to break the school record and top 43,000 points. They also want to win the Super Quiz, the featured event, which this year is on the topic of evolutionary biology. Fulfilling those goals will be the payoff for many dedicated hours of studying.

“There’s a lot of hard working people on the team, which helps us do better,” says Jeremiah Prummer, also a member of the cross country team. “We’re well-rounded and have people that do well in each category.

And the answer to the aforementioned trivia question: Who is Francisco DeLaVarra.

2009 SHS Aca Deca team

Honors (3.75 GPA plus)

Tommy Jacobs

Brita Olson

Jonas Cafferty

Scholastic (3.25-3.75)

Jeremiah Prummer

Kyenna Jensen

Jesse Cobb

Varsity (3.25 and below)

Heather Green

David Dishong

Matthew Charbonneau

Alternates

Hope Woodruff

Ben Murray

Coach

Mary Bird