The South Williamsport Area School District brought home a third place in the small schools division at the 42nd annual Pa. Academic Decathlon State Championship held in Hershey earlier this month.

“South Williamsport has been a part of it for quite a while, but this is a historic year for us,” said Kyle Essick, High School English teacher and coach for the AcaDec club.

“The district has consistently qualified for the competition in the past, but usually as one of the lower ranked teams,” he said.

“This was kind of out of nowhere. For us to do so well is really unheard of,” Essick said.

The competition is made up of 10 events, comprising seven tested subjects, including science and math to literature, art, music, social sciences and economics, as well as an essay, a speech and an interview portion.

“It really tests the whole gamut of the skills and abilities that the competitors have, so to do really well, you have to be really well balanced,” Essick explained.

The competition includes three divisions based on GPA: honors division, scholastic division and varsity division.

“I feel like there’s a misconception that you have to have a 4.0 to be on the team and do well, but there’s room for everybody,” Essick said.

This year’s team included seniors Jacob Lauber, Calleen Anderson, Dylan Webb, Caleb MacGill, CiCi Pulizzi, Matthew He, Gavin Freas, Lia Shaffer and sophomore Payton Paules

Three of those teammates qualified for the national competition, including Pulizzi, who took third place in the honors division, Honors Division, Jacob Lauber, who placed second in the scholastic division and Matthew He, who took first place in the honors division.

Team Captain He also earned the title of small school State Champion.

“These kids deserve all the credit. They’re the ones that take the test, they’re the ones that approach the material,” he said.

AcaDec is offered as a club, with around 20 students participating before the nine competitors were selected based on test scores achieved at their fall and winter meets.

“There are some scheduling issues, because a lot of these kids are involved in a lot of extracurricular activities,” he said.

“It’s why for us to do so well is such a big deal, because we offer it as a club, and we meet once a week. A lot of our kids do FBLA, Key Club, or they’re part of Minithon, all these other service clubs, so they aren’t even able to come to all the meetings,” Essick said.

“I do my best to prepare them, but at the end of the day, if they want to do well, they really put it on themselves to do the legwork,” he said, also giving credit to those that have had the students in class along the way.

“That’s a real indicator, not just of the quality of education, but the quality of students that we have here,” Essick said.

Four-time decathlon competitor Matthew He boils the success of the team down to their strong collaboration.

“We had a lot of team meets in which we would do like group quizzes for this, and I think building that kind of chemistry between us was a big part in our success, because no one usually wants to roll out of bed on a Sunday morning and start studying 10 different categories of academic subjects, so I think the teamwork aspect really motivated us to do the best that we could,” he said, calling the win “cathartic.”

“It was especially meaningful, taking into perspective how far we’ve come,” Matthew said.

“This was four years of my time in the club, and it paid off. And then what I thought about afterwards was kind of like, ‘man, my friends really helped me get through this,” Matthew said, who plans on taking up science in college.

“It would be great if I could find a similar community at a university in which I could academically challenge myself and work with others to build these meaningful relationships,” he said.

For Essick, seeing the awards at the front of the room at the conclusion of the competition was surreal.

“It was like, ‘holy smokes, we actually have a shot at some of these,'” he said.

“I turned to my team and said, ‘gosh, I’d really like one of those red plaques,’ and when they announced the fourth place team as Montoursville, I was like, ‘we’ve got to be third,'” Essick said.

“When they said ‘South Williamsport,’ it was a big to do, because it was remarked to us by some of the other teams that you don’t normally see as big of a jump in one year,” he said.

“I was just really proud of them, all the hard work that they’ve done and the hours they’ve put in, and since it’s a club, I only get so much time with them, so they really do the legwork,” he said.

“The fact that they were able to see the value in it and they see the success and that it all pays off, I think it pays dividends for what they can do for their futures and what they can put their minds to,” Essick said.

Following their third place showing, focus has shifted to the national competition, which takes place in Garden Grove, Calif, though fortunately, this round is online, sparing the team from doing some heavy duty last minute fundraising.

The South Williamsport team’s competition will be split between April 9 and 24.

“My strategy going into nationals is to put all of my eggs into the basket of science and see how far I can go with that,” Matthew said, rather than spreading himself too thin in trying to cover all subjects.

While the sky is the limit for the team, Essick acknowledged that nationals puts them on the same stage with some “powerhouse schools.”

“California and Texas are some places that have academic capital and as a class, they meet every day and they practice and all the time,” he said.

“We’re up against some places that have more ability to meet and practice much more often,” Essick explained.

“But just qualifying is something that if I were in their shoes, would go on the resume for the rest of my life, and if they meddle there too, that would be exceptional,” Essick said.

With eight of this year’s competitors just months from graduating, the team will see something of a rebuilding.

“It’s nice to have senior leadership but we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board,” Essick said.

“But I feel like when you have the evidence to show we have the ability here, success begets success,” he said.

“By winning and getting medals, and doing it together, I hope we can continue the success and the legacy, and build something that gets us back to near the top of the podium again,” Essick said.

With the end of the school year fast approaching, the team’s win couldn’t come at a better time.

“It’s been a really fun way to end the year,” Essick said.

“This is the perfect time to talk about it, because it’s March Madness, and it feels like we’re the Cinderella team who’s coming out of nowhere and making a run,” he said.