The Academic Decathlon team has advanced to the state finals and is scheduled to go to Frisco on Thursday, Feb. 22. However, before the time comes, the team is working on their strategies. 

“For the next competition, the students will put a little bit more work into their speeches, so they won’t miss any points because they left out a paragraph [in their speeches],” co-sponsor Rebecca DeLoizer said. “Because this competition is kind of the last one we can go to, the objective is to go out and maximize points.” 

The process leading up to the competition involves multiple training sessions provided by advisors including Deloizer. 

“What we’ll do is I’ll go through and look at what [has] traditionally been a really strong subject for a student and [what] they underperformed on, but it’s something I know they’re really good at,” Deloizer said. “We’ll have them choose two or three of those multiple choice sections to really focus on. [It’ll] boost their scores and they shouldn’t lose points in the other sections [of the test].”

While Deloizer focuses more on the technical aspects of Ac-Dec, co-sponsor Amber Counts has her own methods. 

“Our strategy involves studying, playing games to remember information, practicing and team-building,” Counts said. “We plan to focus even more for the next competition.” 

Junior Julianna Narvaez focuses on mental preparation as her strategy. 

“It’s mostly [thinking] on your feet [being] quick with what you’re saying, not [hesitating] and [being] confident with [the] actual testing,” Narvaez said. “It’s [refusing to] second guess yourself and pick what you think is correct the first time. 

With preparation, it still came to surprise for senior Jorge Morales that the team made it to state. 

“I was on my way to [the] SpongeBob [musical] with my fellow academic athletes because we wanted to watch it as a reward for doing Ac-Dec,” Morales said. “I was in the car, and they had texted in the group chat we had made it to state. I was so surprised and watching SpongeBob felt 10 times better after knowing that.”

For others on the team, going to state has given them something extra to focus on. 

“I’m mostly looking forward to making new memories with the people I know and with my team,” Narvaez said. 

Meanwhile, junior Parker Easter has his eyes on the prize. 

“It’s the gratification at the end when you get medals and [get] your photo because it’s a lot of fun,” Easter said. 

For junior Yvette Gomez, Ac-Dec has enhanced her skills in terms of learning and management. 

“I like expanding my knowledge, I feel like some of the things I learned this year I’ve never heard of or even thought of learning for the next year,” Gomez said. “[It helps] to improve my time management skills. At the beginning, I didn’t read or study because I felt like I was too busy, but next year I feel like I’ll be able to make time for it.” 

While it might seem like the competition is all serious, the team still makes sure to have fun. 

“At region, we were at our hotel and our teacher was like these scores are not it, and we forgot to lock in for six hours,” Morales said. “We went to Walmart, and we got Nerf guns to shoot whoever would sleep first. When we got to the hotel, we studied for an hour, and then slacked out. Before we knew it, it was 4 a.m., but we all really pulled through. I was so happy with that.” 

Apart from the antics, with the team going to state, It has energized the competitors with the goal to win. 

“We weren’t really sure if we were going to make it to state, and I feel like making it really reaffirmed that we have the potential to do something more,” Morales said. “I really want to get awards, if not, win the competition.”