A delegation from Odessa Collegiate Academy will be heading to state competition in the academic decathlon this weekend in San Antonio.
Coach Mikal Crowder will be taking 14 people, including nine competitors, student coaches and alternates, to the Thomas E. Moseley Texas Academic Decathlon State Meet to compete for a chance at nationals. The meet runs Thursday to Saturday.
Students are chosen for the team through several contests.
“… We go through a series of competitions where the kids compete against other people in the district. I look at the scores and I look at how the kids are performing in areas like speech and essay. Then I kind of look at, okay, who are my best scorers, who has the most growth potential , who’s been showing the most improvement and then I get together with my other coaches and we pick them from there,” Crowder said.
He added that he has several assistant coaches with the main one being Lydia Roundtree.
To get to state, they won the Region 1 Texas Academic Decathlon Region Meet in Keller Jan. 27-28. George H.W. Bush took second place in small schools; Permian High School got fourth place in large schools; and Odessa High School got sixth place in large schools. Kristen Vesely, director of Advanced Academic Services, said in an email that NTO earned a space at the Texas Scholarship State Meet to compete for scholarships Feb. 23-25.
PHS and OHS did not advance this year, she wrote.
There are two state meets. They are going to the Thomas Moseley state championship. If they do well there, there’s a possibility they could continue to nationals.
There are seven subjects, so students compete in art, economics, music, math, social science, science, and literature.
“They each have to take an exam in that. Then they have to write an essay. We did that part of the competition a few weeks ago. They have to give a speech and then they have to participate in an interview,” Crowder said.
He added that he is super proud of his students.
“Every time there’s been something in front of them or I’ve said okay, we need to get this much better in order to get past this next level. They’ve stepped up and been able to do it for us,” Crowder said.
He started coaching last year and they had a team for a couple of years before.
“When I picked it up last year, it was very new to me. It sometimes felt like I was just running around trying to stay one step ahead of everything that needed to be done,” Crowder said.
They were hoping to do the best they could and chalk it up to a learning year.
“Well, then we won the Frisco state championship for small schools, which is the second-tier state championship. When we won that … all of a sudden it kicked over and it was like hey, wait a minute, we can do this. We are as smart as the other kids on this stage. We can win these things,” Crowder said.
As soon as they knew what the subject was going to be for the next year, they started working.
“We got our study materials in late July and they’ve been just chipping away at it ever since,” Crowder said.
The breakdown of the team is based on how well the students do in school.
“You have what’s called an honors category for your students that have a 3.8 GPA or higher; you have a scholastic category that covers from 3.2 GPA up to 3.79. And then you have a varsity category that goes from zero up to 3.19. … We have a we have a couple of sophomores; we have some juniors and then we have five seniors,” he said.
Crowder has an Octathlon team of freshmen and sophomores that he’s been working with this year so they are prepared to step in and compete next year for OCA.
Cielbi Clark, an 18-year-old senior, joined the decathlon team last year. She said she’s been making pretty gradual improvement over the years and is proud of how she did, but that she can do better.
For the state competition, Clark said she thinks she’ll do well.
“I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks preparing, so I’m pretty confident with how I’ll do,” Clark said.
Clark, like the other students, said this experience will help her in life. Some said it has helped them talk to adults in a formal way, helped with test taking and study skills.
“This has taught me a lot of self-discipline as well. I’ve been able to improve my studying skills, so I think that’ll carry over outside of the curriculum and outside of high school,” Clark said.
Skylee Ybarra, a 15-year-old sophomore, said this is her first year in decathlon. She said her coach pushed her to get involved because he saw her potential.
“I thought it was really cool to be a team with everybody and just feel the support,” Ybarra said.
She added that she feels good about the group’s chances at state.
“If we all put in the work and just work really hard we can make it to nationals,” Ybarra said.
Nadine Marcelo, an 18-year-old senior, has been in academic decathlon since her sophomore year.
“At the time, it was the only big club in our school so I decided I wanted to be more involved and decided to try it out,” Marcelo said.
At first, she didn’t really take it seriously because as a sophomore there were upper classmen she thought would carry the team.
“But starting last year, I started taking the leadership role of being the upperclassmen myself so I started taking it more seriously. And as I did that, I realized that we had a greater potential once everyone is really gets into it,” Marcelo said.
Seeing how everyone has studied, she feels they have a better chance of winning state.
“… Not only have we strategized every step of the way, but we are putting in the work to reach our goal,” Marcelo added.
Rayce Wright, a 17-year-old junior, has been on the decathlon team since sophomore year. What did it for him was a jar of Jolly Ranchers he got in a raffle at the orientation.
