After countless hours of studying, competing and studying some more, Pine Tree High School's Academic Decathlon team reached a new milestone: winning second place in the national Academic Decathlon competition for medium-sized schools.
It was the capstone to a year of accomplishments for the team of nine.
Les Hassell/News-Journal Photo |
Pine Tree Academic Decathlon students participate in the essay portion of the national contest Thursday.
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"They were extremely excited and very proud that their accomplishments were able to be noticed on a national level," said the team's head coach Neda Morrow. "To be in the top two — it was just more than they'd even dreamed of."
Pine Tree represented Texas in the medium-school national competition. It is the first year the U.S. Academic Decathlon has had a national competition for medium-sized schools (those with an enrollment of less than 1,300).
Thirteen states competed, with California winning the top spot.
The PTHS team was chosen to compete for Texas because it was the highest-scoring team at the state competition to meet the size requirement.
Pine Tree placed seventh in the state, which also is a new record for the school.
The national competition, which was done via the Internet for medium- and small-division schools, started April 17. The three-day event wrapped up May 1 and 2 with tests in art, economics, math, science and more.
Pine Tree found out Thursday how it ranked.
Focus and teamwork were the major factors in the team's success, Morrow said.
"The No.1 thing was they had to stay motivated to win throughout the whole year," said Morrow, who was helped by assistant coach Cathy Williams. "They had to be willing to study even when they didn't want to, which they did."
It wasn't easy, team members said in an April interview, in the midst of preparing for nationals.
"We went into it thinking it would be less hard," said junior Sean Downey, 17.
"We were duped," added Laramy Thomas, one of Downey's teammates.
In addition to preparing year-round in Academic Decathlon class, the team practiced after school for the meets.
"Pretty much we study every waking moment of the day," said Laramy, 18, a senior.
Senior Carly Hayworth, 18, estimated that she'd spent "a whole month of my life, at least," doing Academic Decathlon work.
"They have a lot of fun, but they have to do a lot of work," Morrow said. "It evens out."
The team will start preparing for 2008-09 competitions on Monday, with the seniors helping the juniors study.
Next year, Pine Tree will have a handful of Academic Decathlon veterans, a luxury this year's team did not have.
The 2008-09 team also will have a few more months of studying that this year's.
Despite the shorter preparation time and the lack of Academic Decathlon experience, Morrow remained confident in her team.
Weeks before the national competition, Morrow guessed that the team would place first or second in the nation.
After learning she was right, she couldn't compliment the students enough.
"That's local kids showing the quality of education in the city of Longview ... and Pine Tree especially," Morrow said Friday.
"That's what that is. You can't win nationals unless you've had a good education from kindergarten all the way up to your senior year."
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Academic Decathlon competitors
Mitchell Hagler, 18, senior; Rebekah Pace, 17, junior; Laramy Thomas, 18, senior; Carly Hayworth, 18, senior; Andrew Howie, 18, senior; Jerica Sandifer, 17, senior; Sean Downey, 17, junior; Connie Jones, 16, junior; Logan Chrietzberg, 17, junior.
