The Servite Academic Decathlon team earned numerous awards and medals at the OCAD Awards Ceremony held at Santa Ana High School on Tuesday night. Decathletes took part in two grueling days of exams, essay writing, speech presentations, and a Super Quiz competition over the course of two Saturdays. This year’s theme was “The 1960’s: A Transformational Decade.” Exam categories included science, social science, art, economics, music, literature, and mathematics, with additional categories in essay, speech, and Super Quiz. Servite finished with an adjusted score that was 10 out of 42 schools. The raw score <without Super Quiz> was actually the 9th highest score, which is the highest rank of any decathlon team coached by Mr. Scott thus far.
The team went home with 26 individual medals, including eight medals in ten categories for Phillip Ferguson. That tops seven out of ten, which was the previous high mark, earned by Ross Yu in 2015. Also earning medals were Will Burns (’18) with two medals, Michael Cabrera, (’18) with five medals, George Colaco, (’18) with 2 medals, David Graham, (’22) with one medal, Matthew Martinez, (’19) with four medals, and Erik Mercado, (’19) with four medals.
In addition to their impressive individual showing, the team took 5th place in Super Quiz and earned First Place overall team score in the Second Division. Hearing “Servite” after the phrase, “and the First Place for Division 1 goes to…” was definitely the highlight of the evening and well-deserved by the team.
The Servite Academic Decathlon is comprised of three teams which are determined by students’ GPA’s:
Honors Team: Michael Cabrera, George Colaco, and Matthew Martinez
Scholastic Team: Ryan Bass, Phillip Ferguson, and Erik Mercado
Varsity Team: Will Burns and Devon Yarak
Alternates: Mark Garcia and David Graham
Coach: Mr. Kieran Scott ’83
For more information about the Academic Decathlon, please see the Orange County Department of Education website. Students who are interested in joining the Servite Academic Decathlon Team should contact Mr. Scott a [email protected].
Servite Academic Decathlon is a rigorous, challenging extracurricular activity that prepares a team of students to compete in ten academic subjects against other teams in Orange County. Students prepare for competitions of academic strength, focusing on language and literature, science, mathematics, social science, economics, art, music, essay, interview, and speech. Teams consist of students from all GPA levels. This club is not for the academically faint-hearted! It is guaranteed to enrich and intellectually strengthen all who dare to participate.
