MCHS’s Academic Decathlon Team has recently participated in the Regional Competition and will be going to State on Friday, March 3rd. Included in this team is senior Jacob Riesen. Eric Butikofer is the coach of this team. Other member of the team include Meredith Armstrong, Lauren Dettmer, Mackenzie Horst, Maya Jalukar, Abigail Read, Zoe Thornblade, Abigail White, Robert Casey, Seth Foster, and Elise Obermire.
Most preparation for Academic Decathlon is done on each student’s schedule. Riesen read the book Transit, by Anna Seghers, and studied the cram packets, which are loaded with information about World War II, the topic for this year’s Decathlon.
Regionals were on Wednesday, January 26, and the team has gone further on, preparing for State on March 3. Riesen has been preparing for this by studying the provided material even further. There will be eleven other teams participating. Butikofer spoke more about this, saying, “Lots more hours studying. Lots more practicing speeches. More time spent revising resumes for the interview. Reaching state is the goal for every team at the beginning of the year. Now that we’re there, we want to take full advantage of this opportunity.”
Butikofer has coached Academic Decathlon for 15 years, though this is his first year at Mason City. Butikofer’s favorite part of the Decathlon is, “the fact that there is a set curriculum to study. There are a lot of Academic Competitions out there, but few have a set curriculum to study. Academic Decathlon is about study skills and work ethic just as much as individual content knowledge.” His goal for the team is, “for everyone to compete at a level that each person is capable of achieving.”
For Riesen, this is his first year on the team. He hopes to improve his scores in weaker points and perform well overall. He enjoyed, “learning about discipline I might not otherwise have looked into.”
Best of luck to the team at State!
-Maya Jalukar, Freshman