Casa academic team to go to state event

<p>Casa Grande High School's Academic Decathlon team is gearing up for state competition after placing second to arch-rival Vanden High School in regional competition that concluded on Saturday.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>“Just like any other team, we need to improve all our scores,” said Donna Reed, who took over coaching the team from Rick Pillsbury this year. “I'll be talking with Rick to figure out what we need to do to be prepared.”</p><p>The California Academic Decathlon State Finals will be held in Sacramento March 12-15. The top-scoring teams from each county, plus around 17 at-large invitees, will compete.</p><p>Just as last year, schools will be grouped on the basis of their scores in the regional competitions, with the top 20 schools competing in Division I, followed by the next-best 20 in Division II and the next 20 in Division III. It was unclear on Tuesday which division the Gauchos will compete in, but Pillsbury said mostly likely it will be Division II. </p><p>Last year, Casa Grande went into the state competition with the 12th highest score, and succeeded all expectations by placing fourth in Division I in the state competition. Vanden won the Division II title.</p><p>This year, Casa Grande sent two teams to the North Bay Regional Academic Decathlon competition in Fairfield. Casa's top team, Team One scored 40,660 points, closely trailing Vanden, which had 41,919 out of a possible 60,000 points. Casa's Team Two had 35,859 points, the third highest score, but since only the top team from each school is counted when determining placements, Benicia High School, which had 35,608 points, the fourth highest score, was awarded third place.</p><p>In 2009, Casa Grande's Team One won the regional competition with 45,101 points, followed by Vanden, with 42,600 points and Casa Grande's Team Two, with 38,200 points. Most members of last year's team graduated, and this year's team consists of many non-seniors.</p><p>Casa's 2010 teams won 56 medals, including three team awards: silver medals for Team One's second place finish in the overall competition and in the Super Quiz Team event, and a bronze medal for Team two's third-place finish in the Super Quiz team competition.</p><p>Reed, who teachers biology and chemistry classes at Casa Grande, was impressed with the performance of the Casa teams.</p><p>“They did an outstanding job,” she said. “It was amazing, and I couldn't believe the among to energy the students had. It was one of the most rewarding things I've done as a Casa teacher.”</p><p>The teams are particularly strong in the essay, speech and interview areas, she said.</p><p>“But the No. 1 strength is how well the students work together,” Reed added.</p><p>Ken Scarberry, director of youth development for the Sonoma County Office of Education, points to another specific strength.</p><p>“The math category is unbelievably hard this year, but Casa Grande had three out of the seven top-scoring students — two from Team One and one from Team Two — out of the nearly 230 students who competed. Their strength in this area could help them in the state competition,” Scarberry said.</p><p>Scarberry has closely ob-served Casa Grande's Academic Decathlon program during the past several years, and feels that this year's team displays the same characteristics as its other successful teams.</p><p>“The same desire is there,” he said. “Last year's team was one of those ‘dream teams,' and the motivation it had is carrying over into this year's team. Casa's team is fairly young, and will do even better next year.” </p><p>(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)</p>