Academic Decathlon quest starts
Jan. 18, 2007, 11:33PM
Academic Decathlon quest starts
Teams from the region hoping to reach state, then head to nationals
By RUTH RENDON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
DECATHLON EVENTS
Regional Academic Decathlon meets are being held this week.
At Pearland High
• Large teams: Alvin; Beaumont West Brook; Clear Brook, Clear Creek and Clear Lake from the Clear Creek school district; Deer Park; La Porte; Dobie, Pasadena, Memorial, Rayburn and South Houston from the Pasadena school district; Port Arthur Memorial; and Pearland.
• Medium teams: Central Sr. and Ozen Magnet from Beaumont; Dickinson; Friendswood; La Marque; Lumberton; Nederland; Santa Fe; Vidor, and Seven Lakes from the Katy school district.
At C.E. King High
• Large schools: Aldine Sr., Carver, Eisenhower, MacArthur and Nimitz from the Aldine school district; North Shore from Galena Park; Bellaire, Chavez, Lamar and the DeBakey High School for Health from the Houston school district; Klein, Klein Collins and Klein Forest from the Klein school district; and Magnolia.
• Medium schools: Galena Park; Reagan from the Houston school district; Klein Oak from the Klein school district; Foster, Lamar Consolidated and Terry from the Lamar Consolidated school district; Montgomery; New Caney; Smiley from the North Forest school district; Wunsche from the Spring school district; and C.E. King.
At Fort Bend Austin
• Large schools: Alief Hastings, Alief Taylor and Elsik from the Alief school district; Austin, Bush, Clements, Dulles, Elkins, Hightower, Kempner and Willowridge from the Fort Bend school district; Cinco Ranch, Katy, Mayde Creek, Morton Ranch and Taylor from the Katy school district; and Spring and Westfield from Spring ISD.
• Small schools: Cleveland; Liberty; and Splendora.
Source: Texas Academic Decathlon
-->Steven Higginbotham remembers the intense afternoons cramming as he and eight Academic Decathlon teammates prepared for competition in economics, history, art and music at Dobie High School in the Pasadena school district.
Now Higginbotham, 29, is leading the charge at the high school as he revives an Academic Decathlon team that has been dormant for several years after longtime coach Richard Golenko stepped down.
Higginbotham's team of six boys and three girls has been cramming after school for weeks as they prepare for a two-day contest at Pearland High School that starts today. The top teams from throughout Texas will compete at the state contests next month. One team will eventually represent the state at the national contest in Hawaii. Dobie teams have won the national title twice — in 1996 and 1992.
The Academic Decathlon is considered a premier scholastic competition among high school students, who are judged individually and as teams. The two-day event culminates with the Super Quiz, a fast-paced intellectual relay, said Sue Edwards, executive director of Texas Academic Decathlon.
This year's topic is "An Introduction to Climatology." Students will be expected to know about climate, the historical evidence of past climate variability, factors that control climate, climates on other planets, the greenhouse-gas effect and human contributions to climate change.
Higginbotham, who is in his second year of teaching U.S. history, sociology and psychology, said he agreed to coach the team because he enjoyed his experience on the 1995 team.
"Mr. Golenko was my most influential teacher in high school, and the decathlon stands out in my mind as the best and certainly the most intense experience of high school," Higginbotham said.
"I really like working with kids that are motivated. I personally also love learning things and am always reading. Decathlon entails a gigantic amount of knowledge."
Higginbotham said Dobie Principal Steve Jamail tried to recruit someone to take over the team after Golenko stepped down, but there were no takers "given the large shoes to fill and the huge amount of work involved." Higginbotham is joined in the coaching by Brad Rampp.
Although Golenko has retired as a schoolteacher, Higginbotham communicates with him daily. "I have a friendship with him, and I'm constantly e-mailing him with questions or venting or letting out my frustrations. He has been very, very helpful, an enormous help," he said.
Higginbotham patterns his coaching style after Golenko's.
"I really try to fill in every detail of his model. That model works because he won nationals twice," he said.
The team has been preparing four days a week after school and on weekends. It is made up of students from varying academic backgrounds. The three varsity members have a C average; the three scholastic members have a B average; and the remaining three, who have top averages, are the honors members.
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ruth.rendon@chron.com