Western Center Academy Academic Decathlon Team Earns Top Honors at National Competition

The United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) announced its top scoring teams at this year's 2021 Virtual National Academic Decathlon competition held virtually on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Western Center Academy (WCA), Hemet Unified School District, received a 3rd Place Overall Team Award in Division IV with 39,013.1 total team points. Additionally, WCA was recognized by the USAD as the Division IV Rookie of the Year.

Western Center Academy placed second overall in the Riverside County Academic Decathlon in January/February and qualified for the national competition after a strong performance at the California Academic Decathlon held in March.

Western Center Academy team members included the following members:

• Coach, Rex McDonald
• Byron Gonzalez 
• Ahnika Pena 
• Aubriana Bernhardt 
• Fatima Muhammad 
• Jayson Bunnell
• Sophia Carver 
• Ayden Reams

USAD individual gold, silver, and bronze awards won by WCA team members within the 10-event competition included Aubriana Bernhardt, Jayson Bunnell, Sophia Carver, and Ayden Reams. 

Over 400 students from the United States competed in the 39th annual United States Academic Decathlon national competition—a 10-event scholastic competition for high school students. There are seven multiple-choice exams, including: Art, Economics, Literature, Mathematics, Music, Social Science, and Science. The Super Quiz event tests students on all subjects listed above. Students also write an Essay and are judged in Speech and Interview. Academic Decathlon is unique in that it is designed to include students from all academic ability and achievement levels. Each nine-member team consists of three “A” (Honor division), three “B” (Scholastic division), and three “C or below” (Varsity division) students. Each team member competes in all 10 events against other students in their individual divisions, and team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division.

The curriculum theme for this year was “The Cold War.” Next year's competition will focus on a topic very familiar to Californians: Water. The science subject will focus on marine biology and the art area will look into watercolor painting and water as a subject of art.

Updated information on the 2021-2022 Academic Decathlon will be posted on the Academic Decathlon page during the summer.