High School Academic Decathlon team earns 28 medals at regional

Academic Decathlon is offered as a humanities course at Chardon High School and meets regularly to study a targeted curricular theme in the areas of economics, social studies, science, language arts, math, art and music and compete in various academic events with other Ohio school districts. The major competitions for which the team spends many months preparing are the regional and state events.

Each year, a new themed curriculum is selected for Academic Decathlon team members to study with the Cold War serving as the current school year’s curricular theme.

“Students have been studying topics such as the economics of the Cold War, a science focus on the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and the Cold War as represented in music, art and literature,” said Allen Herner who is the CHS Academic Decathlon coach and also a business teacher at the high school.

While Academic Decathlon competitions are traditionally held in-person, this year’s competitions are being held virtually in response to the pandemic.

Over the course of the last few weeks, the CHS Academic Decathlon team has been competing virtually in the regional events. After completing objective tests the first week of February, the regional competition culminated in a virtual speech and interview round on Feb. 6 wherein students met online with judges from as far away as Dayton.

“The team did very well picking up a total of 28 individual medals consisting of eleven gold, eleven silver and six bronze,” said Herner. “The team garnered at least one medal in each of the 10 disciplines.”

The 2020-21 Chardon Academic Decathlon team comprises the following students: seniors Benjamin Perry, Lachlan Koenen, Brendan Sarbach, Abigail Breznai, Abigail Atchley and Bradley Duchon; junior Paige Yamamoto; and sophomores Jacob Schneider, Nathan Bender, Austin MacCartney, Nathan Eads and Betsy Lessick.

Although Academic Decathlon is offered as a class, since students meet both in class time and after school, students may opt out of the class and take the extracurricular option if they have scheduling conflicts.

Herner added that the 1:1 initiative that provided Chromebooks for every student at CHS has allowed for materials that are much more portable and user-friendly.

“Much better than the 12-pound binder we used to have,” said Herner. “Because of this, I order materials that are in an electronic format and are more economical than hard copy.”

The CHS Academic Decathlon team is generously funded by Chardon Schools Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission has been funding educational grants for the district since the Foundation’s establishment in 1989.

Via Herner’s diligent research and presentation to the CSF board each spring, he has been successful in securing funds from CSF for the team’s materials and entry fees for each of the past several years.

SUBMITTED Pictured are members, left to right, senior Ben Perry, sophomore Jacob Schneider, senior Lachlan Koenen, sophomore Nathan Bender, senior Brendan Sarbach, sophomore Austin MacCartney, junior Paige Yamamoto, sophomore Nathan Eads, senior Abigail Breznai, senior Abigail Atchley, team coach Allen Herner and senior Bradley Duchon. The team also includes sophomore Betsy Lessick (not shown).