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TCHS academic team vaults to state meet
By BLAINE CRIMMINS, Staff writer
For the second year in a row and just the second time in the history of the school, The Colony High School’s Academic Decathlon team is headed to the state meet.
TCHS will join the top 25 medium-school teams in Texas next weekend in a competition testing students’ knowledge and comprehension of Latin America, with a special emphasis on Mexico.
Six team members from The Colony earned medals at the regional meet held this weekend at McArthur High School in Irving.
Those six students, along with team members Anthony Hernandez, Jorge Silva, and Alexander Doan, will head to San Antonio College Feb. 26 through March 1 for the state meet. Alternates, one of which was called up during the regional meet because of an illness, are Ashley Ross, Vivian Cho, and Michael Dennison.
In Academic Decathlon, students are given a bulk of study material relating to the topic for the year, in this case Latin America. Previous years’ topics included the Civil War, China, and the Renaissance.
The material is divided into 10 categories: economics, mathematics, social science, art, music, language and literature, an essay, a prepared speech, two impromptu speeches, and an interview.
Richard Sulfstede and Doug Hutchison are the team’s coaches. Sulfstede said that the team’s accomplishments are a credit to the students’ hard work.
“They’ve been impressive in managing the material and studying,” he said. “The coaches only present the material. The students are in charge of absorbing it.”
Sulfstede said he believes team can draw upon last year’s experience.
“This year I have several repeat customers. They’ve figured out how to internalize the material and perform under pressure,” he said. “The competition is quite fierce at state. We were kind of shell-shocked last year, but I know we’ll do a little better this year. The kids and coaches know what to expect. Either way, the kids are excited about going down there. They have a spring in their steps. Being one of the top 25 in the state is pretty impressive in itself.”
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