Simi Valley High Takes County ‘AcaDeca’ Title

Simi Valley High School topped a field of two dozen teams of young scholars to win the Ventura County Academic Decathlon, reclaiming a title it had won three other times in the last 10 years.

The school’s nine-member team A -- Simi High had two teams this year -- won the overall competition with a score of 47,560 points out of a possible 60,000 and will represent the county at the state Academic Decathlon on March 12-14 in Sacramento. The winners were announced Sunday afternoon at Oxnard’s Pacifica High School.

Oxnard High, which on Saturday won the oral exam known as the Super Quiz, placed second overall with a score of 41,631. Santa Susana High in Simi Valley was third with 40,828 points. Simi Valley High’s six-member team B was fourth with 40,488. Westlake High, which entered three teams, was fifth with 38,693.

“I was hoping our score would be around 45,000, so when we came out over 47,000 we knew we could stay in the hunt for the state contest,” said Debbi Mjoen, coach of the Simi Valley High squads. “The kids have a new goal: to go to nationals.”

There was no mistaking Mjoen’s classroom Monday. Red, white and blue balloons were everywhere, along with several bouquets of flowers and a poster covering the entire front door congratulating the scholastic champs.

Then there were the trophies -- more than a dozen of them, including one from the county to the winning team. And the decathletes themselves had no lack of recognition.

“Between my two teams, they have 75 medals hanging around their necks,” Mjoen said. “The kids, of course, are on cloud nine.”

The 10-event contest is spread over two weekends, during which students are tested on a variety of subjects, including math, science, economics and art. Organizers say the tournament has emerged as the nation’s premiere scholastic competition for high school students.

The national finals will be in Boise, Idaho, in mid-April.

The lead team from Simi Valley High made a strong showing in most of the individual challenges, taking first place in the essay, interview, language and literature, music, economics, science, and art contests. The Simi B team won the speech event and Westlake High’s team A won the math competition.

“Their coach, Debbi Mjoen, she’s really pulled these students together. Several have been on the team multiple years and they’ve developed a strong bond,” said Phil Gore, director of administrative support services for the Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Office, which has hosted the countywide competition for 22 years.

The most important factor in the success of an Academic Decathlon (or “AcaDeca”) team, Gore said, is just hitting the books and working hard.

“There’s no substitution for preparation and studying. And they’ve done that,” he said. “To excel in this program, you have to put in a tremendous amount of time, and that goes for both the students and the coach.”

Mjoen gave her team members the afternoon off Monday, but said three- to six-hour study sessions, including on Saturdays, will begin today and go nonstop until next month’s tournament. After three years as coach, Mjoen intends to step down at the end of this year’s competition.

“You spend so many hours with the same people, we really have become a family,” said Stephen Hampton, 17, a team captain. “The next step is to study more. Keep working at it and keep raising those scores.”

Peter Huybers, coach of the Santa Susana team, congratulated his cross-town rivals “for having such a highly motivated group of kids.”

He admitted a bit of disappointment placing third again, after a third last year and a second place in 2002.

“Though we put in more time than ever before, we didn’t put in enough to take first place,” Huybers said. But he said his school might gain an edge next year, considering the withdrawal of Mjoen and Larry Jones.

Jones coached powerhouse Moorpark High, which won the county title seven times since 1993 and the national championship in 2003, but did not enter a team this year after Jones’ retirement from competition.

Simi Valley High won the county and state competitions in the 1999-2000 school year and placed second in the national finals.