SHS AcaDeca team claims state title

The Sandpoint High senior’s grade point average nudged the bottom end of the spectrum and his scholastic future was that blinking bulb that requires a foot stool to replace.

Then Mary Bird recruited him to her team: The same SHS AcaDeca team that won the state academic decathlon last weekend.

After finishing on top at several tournaments including the North Idaho

Invitational in December and regionals in February, the nine-member team secured more than 50 medals in the state championship at the March 12-13 competition in Sandpoint.

It was only the second time in the decade that SHS has participated in Acadeca that its team won the championship. Sandpoint also won in 2006.

During the two-day event that included teams from 25 schools, Jones earned three bronze medals, and a gold in the economics competition.

Not bad, for the student’s first — and last — year in the program, his fellow decathletes agreed.

“I’m probably the stupidest person on the team, GPA-wise,” Jones said to a chorus of boos from his teammates who chastised him for self-loathing.

His GPA, he said, was usually 2.0 or lower until he joined the team at the prodding of Bird.

“He always had a book, and he was always helping out students,” Bird said. “I saw that there was a decathlete inside him.” 

Tommy Jacobs, the team’s senior captain joined Acadeca his freshman year. He slugged home eight medals at the state competition including a first place in the honors division, landing a $300 scholarship.

Twenty-six schools from across Idaho competed in the event that included written and impromptu speeches, timed oral quizzes, essays and interviews on topics ranging from art, math and science to language and literature. The French Revolution was the theme for the 2010 finals.

Because AcaDeca is part of the school’s curriculum in addition to being a competitive event, students prepare for matches in class and after school by poring over fat binders packed with facts that they receive early enough, before the next school year, to study during summer vacation.

 The lead time doesn’t help many of the competitors.

“I am the world’s biggest procrastinator,” Caleb Giard, a four-year team member and high school senior said. “I do not study at all.”

He earned nine medals and an overall silver.

Sophia Meulenberg, a junior and first-year team member agreed with Giard.

“The hardest part,” Meulenberg said, “is looking at those two, three-inch binders and opening them.”

She won two gold medals and a silver at the state tourney.

Her best memory of the event is the announcement that Boise-based Centennial High, which usually wins the state competition, earned a second place.

It meant that Sandpoint had secured a footnote in Idaho AcaDeca history with its second, state championship.

“Everyone was crying and hugging and holding hands,” she said.

Senior Azumi Smith, a second-year team member who earned four medals, expects her AcaDeca experience to carry her through college.

“It taught me to study and get stuff done,” Smith said.

The academic decathlon, however, is not only about studying and winning championships based on intellectual prowess, said Natalie Charbonneau, a junior who earned two silvers.

Friendship is the bigger prize.

“Hanging out, being a team, talking like normal teenagers,” was the best part of her year at AcaDeca, she said. “Talking about normal teenage stuff.”

It helped the team unwind.

“I think we won because we went in there all cool,” Jones said. “Not all packed with studying.”

Sandpoint High’s team includes Abbie Prummer, a junior who earned five medals at state, senior Kyenna Jensen, a team captain who brought home seven medals and an overall silver, and Brita Olson, a junior who earned eight medals and overall silver.

The team will travel to Omaha, Neb., April 21-24 for the national competition and has raised $2,500 for the trip. Fundraising events are being planned to secure the $8,000 required to send the SHS team to the national championships. The team plans a car wash at the Payless Shoes parking lot, March 27, and March 29 bingo, chili feed.

For more information on AcaDeca, click www.acadecaidaho.org.