SAN DIEGO — Who’s it going to be?
Thirty-six teams from local Catholic schools will compete in the 2026 Catholic Academic Junior High Decathlon on Saturday, March 7. The event will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at St. Augustine High School.
The first-place team will represent the diocese at the national level of the competition, which will be held virtually on Friday, March 20.
Last year, St. Michael’s School in Poway won at the diocesan level and went on to rank fourth-place overall nationally.
Elizabeth Kramer, associate superintendent of the Diocese of San Diego’s Catholic schools and a decathlon regional coordinator, said that 21 regional decathlon events will be held throughout the country on March 7. Since these events typically attract between 12 and 15 teams, she said, San Diego’s will be the largest.
She said that the decathlon is an event for students to showcase their intelligence in an academic competition with 10 subjects. They train virtually the entire school year for this day, meeting after school.
“It’s just a fun and exciting day for students to collaborate as a team, using their God-given gifts and abilities to showcase their intelligence,” she added.
There’s the Logic Quiz, where the 10 students on each team have one hour to collaborate in solving 20 challenging logic puzzles.
There are also eight individual subject tests — Current Events, English, Fine Arts, Literature, Math, Religion, Science and Social Studies — for which one member of each participating team takes a 50-minute multiple-choice test.
First-place winners in the individual subject tests also go on to compete at the national level.
The Super Quiz, another team event, consists of 50 multiple-choice questions about Fine Arts, Literature, Religion, Science and Social Studies. Other than the opening prayer, this is the only part of the event that is open for the public to view.
The event has the joy of a sports competition, with many families turning out to support their students with banners and noisemakers.
At the conclusion of the decathlon, the scores are tabulated and the winners are announced.
Kramer said the diocesan-level competition introduced an optional service component last year. Two teams opted to organize a service project last year, she said, and she hopes to see even more do so this time.
Coaches will submit a written explanation — and photos — of their team’s service project prior to the March 7 event. Teams will be recognized for their service during the awards ceremony that concludes the event, as well as in a newsletter that will be sent out the following week by the diocesan Office for Schools.
“Engaging in a service project as an Academic Decathlon team fosters meaningful connection among team members while putting faith into action,” said Kramer. “Students have the opportunity to learn and engage with the principles of Catholic Social Teaching to serve the broader community.”
Learn more at catholicajhd.org. For questions, email ekramer@sdcatholic.org.
