If the common superstition, “bad luck comes in threes,” is true, it is apparent that for West High’s Academic Decathlon team, four is the magic number for surpassing this bad luck. February 4th, 2012 marked the day that our Decathletes were crowned the Los Angeles County champions for the 4th year in a row!
The competition took place over two days and at two locations: January 28th at Pico Rivera El Rancho High School, and February 4th at University of Southern California. The decathlon competition is comprised of taking tests in a variety of different subjects, giving a 5-minute speech, and being interviewed. This year, the South Bay competition proved to be tough, with Redondo Union High School coming in second place.
Co-captain and decathlete for three and a half years, Joey Hahm (12) attributed West’s 4th consecutive success to the fact that “the entire team worked together as a whole and helped each other out.” Hahm initially joined the team because he had a great deal of free time on his hands and “thought it would be a productive and efficient use of [his] time.” First year decathlete Will Wu (11) likes to learn, and thought that “since Acadec is all about learning and curiosity,” he would be perfect fit. So far, Wu’s favorite part about being on the team is the fact—aforementioned by Hahm—that West’s team “really bonds; encouraging and urging each other to push on.”
West’s Acadec team even earned itself a feature in an article in the South Bay local newspaper, The Daily Breeze. The Acadec coach at West for the past six years, Mrs. Cortina, proclaimed of their success: “It’s just really amazing to see them achieve success after all their hard work.”
Hopefully, all of the team’s hard work will persist and our decathletes will know victory in fives, sixes, sevens, and more in the years to come!