When thinking of sports, games like basketball, volleyball, or football likely come to mind, but sports mentally played are sorely underestimated, even critically acclaimed national academic sports like Academic Decathlon. Tompkins’ AcaDec team is composed of 9 members, all ranging in grade levels, and is led by student captain senior Elvin Li. 

In AcaDec, members study and test their understanding of topics ranging from all subjects including art, science, and literature. AcaDec provides opportunities for students with any GPA or prior knowledge to join a team and work together to have a better comprehension of a variety of academic material. 

“I love that AcaDec gives me an opportunity to learn interesting topics that I otherwise would never even touch, like music theory. I like the feeling of learning these things just to learn them, and they might come in handy someday,” Li said. 

As student captain, Li has AcaDec responsibilities like teaching topics to the group and organizing study sessions. Li also takes it upon himself to help keep the team prepared and inspired for their upcoming competitions. 

“Our most recent competition went pretty well, and even though it was still really difficult, we could tell that our preparation over the past few months have paid off,” Li said. 

Despite some competitions being individual, it is important for the whole team to help one another. Tasks like studying, practicing, and competing are open to collaboration and every member dedicates time to these responsibilities, and overcome them as a group. 

“I would like people to know that competing and learning can be challenging and fun at the same time, especially when you do it with others in our niche AcaDec community,” Li said. 

For AdaDec, even being faced with the challenges of constant learning, the collective voice and opinions of all members make any obstacle easy to overcome.