Harmony Magnet Academy cinches Academic Decathlon Championship

After letting last year’s Tulare County Academic Decathlon Championship title slip by, missing it by only a few points, the Harmony Magnet Academy Academic Decathlon team decided that they would not let it happen again. And they didn’t.

On Monday night, the Harmony Magnet Academy Knights not only won the small school award for the fourth year in a row, but they also put an end to Granite Hills’ winning streak.

It was the first time, in Tulare County’s 30-plus years history that the smallest school participating was the overall winner, breaking what would have been a 10-year winning streak for Granite Hills High School.

“Last year we were so close. It was between us and Granite Hills High School,” said Daniel Reif. “If each one of us had answered just one more question correctly, we would have won. This year, we decided we were bucking down. We studied hard and it paid off.”

After two days of grueling competition Friday and Saturday, where 19 teams from Tulare County high schools competed in 10 events — testing individually on economics, mathematics, music, art, language and literature, and science, and presenting prepared and impromptu speeches and written essays before competing as a team during a fast-paced super quiz — the teams returned to the Porterville College gymnasium Monday night for results and awards.

And by the time the evening was over, Harmony Magnet Academy ended with 33 individual medallions, two first-place plaques, the small-school trophy and the overall championship trophy.

During the awards ceremony, Reif’s name was called again and again, claiming several individual medallions, and cinching a couple of individual plagues for obtaining the highest score in Language and Literature, and Art. Thayne Keele, Porterville High School, claimed the top award individual plaque in speech.

Individual top scores also went to Nick Milner, Harmony Magnet; Melissa Walker, Granite Hills High School; and Doug Murdock, Harmony Magnet, in Honors, Scholastic and Varsity, respectively.

In the audience was Harmony Magnet Academy Principal Robert Land.

“This is exciting. I’m very proud of what the team has accomplished,” Land said. “They got a taste of this last year when they came so close to winning. This year, they were determined and have been dedicated to coming to zero period [class before school starts] every day. I had a feeling this morning when I saw them at school. When these kids beat me every morning to school — I can see they’re determined.”

Team coach John DeNicola said he had to find the right students from a small pool of potential participants as compared to large schools in the county, and set off at the start of the year in search of an Achilles, Odysessus and Theseus to compete against schools with populations of more than four times that of Harmony Magnet Academy’s.

“When we look at the district and see that Granite Hills has a lot of people to choose from and they have won for [nine] years in a row, and expected to win again this year, and then you see our small school,” DeNicola said. “I had to find heroes and champions who would lead us to victory over the vast numbers opposing us.”

For that reason, DeNicola said he sought students at the beginning of the school year who could be made into heroes.

“Students with complementary skills were paired up to support each other and as tin and copper combine to form bronze, a metal stronger than the component parts from which it is made, a versatile and mutually supportive team of great strength was formed,” he said. “The win was a real team effort.”

Harmony Magnet Academy will advance to the statewide competition to be held March 15 to 18 in Sacramento.

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or eavila@portervillerecorder.com. Follow her on Twitter @Avila_recorder.

2012 Academic Decathlon
By the numbers
Medallions: Harmony Magnet Academy — 14 bronze, 12 silver and 6 gold; Granite Hills High School — 5 bronze, 7 silver, 9 gold; Monache High School — 4 bronze; Porterville High School — 3 bronze, 4 silver, 2 gold
Individual event top plaques: Language and Literature — Daniel Reif, Harmony Magnet; Art — Daniel Reif, Harmony Magnet; Speech — Thayne Keele, Porterville High
Individual top scores: Honors — Nick Milner, Harmony Magnet; Scholastic — Melissa Walker, Granite Hills ; Varsity — Doug Murdock, Harmony Magnet
Super Quiz top score: Harmony Magnet Academy, Team A.
Overall top team: Small school - Harmony Magnet; Large Team — Granite Hills High School