Moniteau Academic Decathlon team heading to Texas
CHERRY TWP — The final bell had sounded and Moniteau Jr./Sr. High School had cleared out, but for six students and their coach practice would continue for hours.
Kristy Hershey, coach of the Moniteau Academic Decathlon team, was overseeing a study session and speech practice for six of the nine team members who will be going to the national competition in Texas next month.
Hershey, the team’s coach for the last five years, said the Moniteau squad won its place in the national contest by being one of two schools out of 13 competitors to win at the state competition at Thiel College on March 3 and 4.
Hershey explained her team triumphed in 10 competitions: seven sit-down multiple-choice tests on art, music, literature, science, social science, economics and math; a timed essay; an interview; and a two-part speech competition consisting of a 3.5- to 4-minute prepared speech and an impromptu speech on a random subject where contestants are given one minute to prepare an up to two-minute speech.
The Moniteau squad had worked its way through competitions in November through December, then regional contests and finally the state match.
Now, the team will be flying to Frisco, Texas, for the national competition April 27 through 29.
The two-and-a-half-hour study session last week was in preparation for the Texas trip, but not anything out of the ordinary for the 17 members of the squad. Decathletes practice and study in a group several days a week.
“They stay after school and meet on Sundays,” Hershey said. “One of the booster group members lets us use his house on Sundays. Sometimes they prepare food.
“We have a really great booster club. They bought us shirts for the nationals, and they will pay for food and extra expenses,” she said.
The school district will pay for the team’s plane tickets and registration, and the booster group has raised $10,000 through fundraisers to pay for additional expenses, such as dinner at the Fort Worth Stockyards and a trip to a Six Flags amusement park in Texas once the competition ends.
In the meantime, the two-and-a-half-hour study session is nothing 11th-graders Taylor Voloch, Heath Shaner and Karolina Karner, 12th-graders Molly Milich and Joehy Brinkley and 10th-grader Veronica Miller haven’t done before.
Asked what makes a good decathlete, Karolina said, “Compassion. You have to care about it a lot to have the motivation to study and rely on your team.”
For Molly, it’s determination.
“It goes hand in hand with motivation, because you want to do well. You just have to want to make one of those top three spots,” Molly said, referring to medal-winning scores in each level of competition.
And the Moniteau team really collects the metal in the categories of literature and social science, scoring eight of nine medals in the regional competition Feb. 10 and 11 at Moniteau Jr./Sr. High School.
“Literature and social sciences are definitely our strengths. We do very well in those,” Karolina said.
Karolina and Molly were in agreement in what was the toughest subject on the tests, economics.
Veronica said she really enjoys competing in the speech section of the contests.
“I just like talking to people. With the prepared speech, sometimes I make it about something I really love,” she said.
Hershey said the team practices speeches to get comfortable about speaking in front of people.
Molly said Hershey also tells her team when crafting an impromptu speech “to make it a personal connection.”
Hershey said none of the results from the tests, the essay and the speeches are known until the medals are handed out at the end of the competitions.
“When they say the name, we go wild,” said Karolina. “We are the biggest screamers in the auditorium.”
The Moniteau team hopes the raise the roof later this month in Texas.
