Jr./Sr. High School Academic Decathlon Team Headed For States

The Westwood Jr./Sr. High School academic decathlon team is headed to the state finals for the first time in school history.

According to teacher and team advisor James Thomas, the school did not even have a competing team five years ago.

"I'm really proud because we've taken this from nowhere and now we're a state qualifier," Thomas said.

Academic decathlon competitions consist of individual tests in art, economics, science, music, math and language lit, an essay, speech and interview and also the super quiz — a large, team-based contest in front of a cheering crowd. Westwood's 18-member team, which has nine starters and nine alternates, competed in the regionals contest at Ramapo College February 4. They won second place in the super quiz and fourth place overall in the region.

The team will compete in the state finals March 3.

To prepare, team members having been meeting during lunch for practice.

"They're been giving up lunch with their friends to work on this," Thomas said.

Senior Matt Rogers, a team member, said he did not expect to win, but was confident the team will continue to improve.

"This is our first time [competing in states]," Rogers said. "We're probably going to do better in the future."