YCS takes honors first time out

By Harold Gwin

The team spent more than 500 hours studying for the competitions this year.

YOUNGSTOWN — It was Youngstown Christian School’s first trip to the Ohio State Championship of the United States Academic Decathlon, but you wouldn’t know it from the results.

Instead of being a team just getting the feel of the competition for the first time, Youngstown Christian walked away from the event with the state Small School Division title and will advance to national competition in April.

Reaching that level took a lot of hard work. The first-year team spent more than 500 extracurricular hours studying for the Academic Decathlon competitions this year.

“We didn’t think we had a shot at nationals,” said Cristen Manion, 17, of Youngstown, a junior member of the team who walked away from the state championships with a Golden Eagle Award for being the top scorer in her division.

Before the state event, the Youngstown Christian team had three scrimmages against schools in Western Pennsylvania that make the nationals every year, and it was tough, she said.

Manion, whose goal is to go to Princeton, major in political science, earn a law degree and become a politician, said she knew she wanted to win a Golden Eagle Award when she saw one at the start of the state games.

“I really didn’t think I had a shot. We all go in with the same material,” she said.

Being involved in Academic Decathlon has taught her a lot, she said.

“It taught me the importance of a team. Even though we compete against each other, we need that team effort to get to nationals,” she said.

“This is by no means a team of privileged students,” said Joshua Reichard, team coach. “Many of these students have worked extremely hard to overcome socio-economic obstacles to achieve this goal. Their championship this weekend is a shining example of the quality of education provided by Youngstown Christian and a testimony to hard work and dedication. Their accomplishment is a badge of honor for the Mahoning Valley. They are the future hope of our community.”

Youngstown Christian is the only high school in the Youngstown-Warren region to field a USAD team. It is sponsored by V&M Star.

The United States Academic Decathlon is rated as the nation’s foremost academic competition.

Students compete in ten categories: Language and literature, art, music, natural science, social science, mathematics, economics, essay, interview and speech.

This year’s general theme was “Latin America,” and the science topic was “Biological Evolution.”

Academic Decathlon is designed to include students from all academic ability and achievement levels, dividing each nine-member team by their academic levels: Three A or “honors” students, three B or “scholastic” students and three C or lower “varsity” students. Levels compete against each other, and team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division.

Academic decathletes take 30-minute multiple choice tests in the subjects of economics, art, music, language and literature, mathematics, science, and social science. In addition, each team member gives a planned four-minute speech and a two-minute impromptu speech, sits through a seven-minute interview and has 50 minutes to write an essay. They also take part in a Super Quiz Oral Relay.

All Ohio public and private high schools are eligible to compete. The Academic Decathlon is a partnership of business, foundations and individuals in cooperation with the education community and county offices of education.

The Ohio state competition was held at Lake Erie College in Painesville. Participants received certificates for tuition reductions should they choose to attend Lake Erie College, and the students are now eligible for nearly $15 million worth of scholarships from participating colleges and universities in Northwest Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

This year’s 42-state national event takes place April 22 to 25 in Memphis, Tenn.

gwin@vindy.com