Jefferson High School Academic Decathlon team continues to shine

CEDAR RAPIDS - In Room 38 of the basement of Jefferson High School, students were bent over their binders.

They were working on Indian music. Title by title, students practiced saying the name of a particular song, what region of India the song is from and when such a song would be played.

Coach Kevin Darrow asked one student to identify the name of the first song. Then, the coach asked a different student for one fact about the song. This continued around the room. Later on during the evening, students took a pop quiz in pairs. Darrow played a selection of songs for 30 seconds each. Students then worked with their partner to write down the name of each individual song.

The group of eleven juniors and seniors at Jefferson High School completing the exercises are all members of the Jefferson Academic Decathlon team.

Decathlon is a ten-event academic competition that centers around one theme each year, Darrow explained. The theme can be a geographic setting, a time period, or an idea, he said.

The Jefferson decathlon team has a well-established history of winning. The team has won the state competition 15 years in a row and 18 of the last 19 years. During the Cedar Rapids Regional on January 30, the team finished in first place. Jefferson students earned nine individual awards.

The team qualified for the state competition in Spirit Lake March 4-5.

This year, for the first time, the theme is India.

'We've always learned Western music, and this year we've actually switched it to Eastern music,” Darrow said. 'The name Beethoven's never brought up in the entire guide. I've been coaching for 15 years and I've always taught the same things and this year it's challenges to learn different things.”

The competition involves nine students, separated into groups based on grade-point average.

'Every school has their academically gifted kids that do school, but decathlon wants to try to find those kids who are not being motivated by the regular classroom education,” Darrow said. 'This forces teams to be comprised of 33 percent of kids that don't do school.”

The team begins studying each year in June. For the first couple months, they study once a week. Gradually, that increases to three times a week. Between state and nationals, if the team qualifies, it meets four or five times a week.

This year, the team is made up of all first time students. For Connor Hammons, an 18-year-old senior from Cedar Rapids, seeing his own growth and his teammates' growing has been the best part.

'It's amazing to me, some of the growth that you can just see as we took the test the first time and then we'll take a second test and it was even a little bit harder and we'll have improvements,” Hammons said.

'I love the fact that the subject area changes every year,” Darrow said. 'I figure at some point I'll be omnipotent and I'll know everything. That may take about 40 or 50 years.”

The team recently mourned the loss of John Wojtowicz, a longtime Jefferson teacher who started the team in 1991. Wojtowicz died on January 16.

Darrow said entire teams of former decathletes attended his memorial service and celebration of life.

'It was a nice dedication to his commitment to this activity,” Darrow said. 'His memorial was set up so that donations could be made to Jefferson Academic Decathlon. That was his thing.”