Rancho Cordova, CA (MPG) - St. John Vianney School in Rancho Cordova continues to shine academically, with some ongoing success in the Sacramento region's Academic Decathlon competition.  The current 2022 St. John Vianney (SJV) Academic Decathlon Team  has a high bar to clear in the upcoming competition, striving to outscore their predecessors.

The highly competitive junior high level competition was last held remotely on March 6th, 2021.  

That team, the 2021 St. John Vianney Academic Decathlon Team (ACADECA) performed very well in all competition areas, earning a 5th place for the team overall.  The performance was particularly strong in the Social Studies competition, where Kate Hooper scored a 1st Place for the team, and similarly Katrione Ramos scored a 1st Place in Fine Arts.  

Other top team scorers included Mateo Andrade with a 2nd Place in Religious Studies and Justin Paredes who notched a 5th in

Math in the regional competition.

For several years now, St. John Vianney’s (SJV) ACADECA team has been among the top contenders in this top regional academic competition, with leading scores in all three major components of the competition - the Logic Test, the Individual Subject Tests, and in the ever-popular Super Quiz — a live-action competition that keeps the audience spellbound.  

This year’s theme for the competition was “team”.  That theme was applied to various subjects that make up the competition’s core academic subject area challenges: Science, Fine Arts, Social Studies, Current Events, Math, English, Writing, and Religion.

Each of those subjects appears in every annual competition, but they are refocused annually on the theme for that particular year. Students begin training in the 6th grade at SJV, by learning how to do logic puzzles.  They often study over the summer, making their preparations year-round for the event.

The Junior High Academic Decathlon competition is a great preparation for learning later in a student’s academic career.  

The competition is stiff, and students who succeed are maximizing their study skills and mastering vast amounts of information.  

Successful team efforts like St. John Vianney’s have students studying for 3-4 months to master the assigned books, puzzle types, study guides, and other materials that are assigned in the competition.  

"Parents typically are amazed at how much information their students can learn, and most importantly, the team members themselves gain a new understanding of how much they can absorb and master with consistent effort.  It’s this later part that makes the Decathlon so valuable for students and the school at large” said Principal Amy Hale.

“Nothing prepared me for the tough classes in High School as much as ACADECA.  It’s the only place for a middle school student where extreme learning happens — students push their limits and are amazed about how much they can learn in a single subject if they put their mind to it.  That’s what prepared me for honors classes in high school more than anything else.  

And it’s really fun!”  said Gian Carlos Gonzalez, an SJV Acadeca Alumni from 2018.

St. John Vianney School is a Rancho Cordova Institution, with over 60 years of educating kids.  The school and staff and parents are proud to provide an outstanding educational experience for their students, with full programs of extracurricular academic and athletic offerings exceeding those found in other local schools.