fbpx

Academic Decathlon’s winningest coach draws on years at Jewish camp

In the small and insular world of U.S. Academic Decathlon, Mathew Arnold has led a dynasty comparable to the Los Angeles Lakers.
[additional-authors]
March 9, 2016

In the small and insular world of U.S. Academic Decathlon, Mathew Arnold has led a dynasty comparable to the Los Angeles Lakers.

A revolving group of students from Granada Hills Charter High School won four of the last five national championships, with Arnold leading them through the competition that quizzes students in 10 subjects. The team is off to a good start this year, as well, having won the district competition in February, which means it will be one of 70 teams in the state competition on March 17-20.

Aca Deca, as insiders call it, is no laughing matter for those to whom it matters. Students in 17 U.S. states, as well as in London and China (though not active in every state, the national organization has begun expanding overseas), spend months studying for the April national event, which will take place this year in Anchorage, Alaska. The USAD website boasts an 82-page history complete with appendices: Arnold’s streak has been equaled only once in three decades of national competitions.

The 38-year-old lead coach and English teacher knows a thing or two about the world of teenagers. 

Decathlon coach Mathew Arnold. Photo by Michael Delmonte

Arnold was among three former campers to be honored at the Dec. 5 gala for the Shalom Institute, the organization that runs Camp JCA Shalom in the Malibu hills.

He began spending his summers there when he was 9, and over time moved through leadership positions until he was old enough to become program director, overseeing activities for the entire camp.

“If you go to camp, your camp friends are just something different that can’t be explained to anybody outside of that world, and I think that Decathlon here does that,” he said in a January interview at the high school.

In his airy, first-floor classroom lined with local, state and national Academic Decathlon plaques and trophies, he channeled his inner camp counselor.

“In order for the group to come together, I have to give them myself,” he said. “If I hide myself and who I am and what I care about, that doesn’t happen as easily.”

On the same day, a dozen high school students sat in the Granada Hills classroom of Jon Sturtevant, part of the three-teacher coaching team, and pored over math handouts in preparation for the Los Angeles Unified School District competition later that month. (Spoiler alert: They placed first in the district, earning a rare perfect score on a group quiz game called Super Quiz Relay.)

One wouldn’t know from looking at them that they were positioned to make test-taking history, or that a couple of them already had, but they were the only teens on campus who were prepared to stay at school until 8 p.m. studying for tests not included in their regular curriculum.

“A lot of people call it a cult,” said Jorge Zepeda, a returning member of last year’s championship team. “They give it a negative connotation because all we do is stay in here and study.”

But the bad rap doesn’t bother Zepeda.

“It’s not really like that for us,” he said. “We get to really learn more about each other, work together, strive toward a goal, and that connects us in a way that most kids aren’t in school.”

For Zepeda, that personal growth has come with some tradeoffs. After Granada Hills won the national competition last April, Zepeda’s mother told CBS News about his training regimen: “No video games, no Facebook,” she said.

But a chance to better themselves is precisely what hooks them.

“We’re not selling winning — we’re trying to sell personal growth and transformation,” Arnold said. “The winning is a result of that.”

The competition requires each team to enter three “A” students, three “B” students and three “C” students. Although high achievers may be more likely to join an academic club, it’s the lower tier that benefits the most, Arnold said. 

“What happens to a ‘C’ student that does this for a year? They’re no longer a ‘C’ student,” he said.

Arnold spent his childhood in Granada Hills, although he went to high school at the Cleveland Humanities Magnet in Reseda. Growing up, he couldn’t have known the region would become dominant in Academic Decathlon: Every national competition since 2003 has been won by a Southern California team, with all but two of those titles going to San Fernando Valley schools.

However, Granada Hills Charter High School hadn’t broken out of the state competition until 2011, when Arnold led the team to its first state and national championship.

He’s now rounding a decade as an Academic Decathlon coach. Arnold’s teaching career began at Canoga Park High School in 2001, where a retiring teacher first handed him the mantle as coach of that school’s team. He took a break from the classroom to earn a master’s in English and American literature at New York University. When he began teaching again in 2009, Granada Hills Charter High School offered him a job as an itinerant English teacher — moving from classroom to classroom throughout the day.

Two days later, they called him and asked if he would also coach the Academic Decathlon team. It came with the offer of a classroom of his own.

“It was hard to say no to it,” he said.

Arnold had never intended to be a teacher. After graduating from college, he took what he called “a totally empty, unfulfilling job” in the Bay Area tech sector until his mother, a teacher herself, encouraged him to earn his teaching credential.

It turns out, though, that he was better prepared for the job than he may have thought.

“When I was in teacher-training school, they’d showed me something, and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s basically a camp program, but it’s in a classroom setting,’ ” he said.

The camp mentality still animates his teaching today.

“Camp for me is … where do you go to find who you are, where do you go to find your closest friends, where do you go to figure out your core values and what matters?” he said. “That’s what it is — and so I’m trying to bring some element of that here for students.”

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Difficult Choices

Jews have always believed in the importance of higher education. Today, with the rise in antisemitism across many college campuses, Jewish high school seniors are facing difficult choices.

All Aboard the Lifeboat

These are excruciating times for Israel, and for the Jewish people.  It is so tempting to succumb to despair. That is why we must keep our eyes open and revel in any blessing we can find.  

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.