North Atlanta prides itself in many things. Our amazing sports teams, shining theater program, and high level academics are admired by schools across the city. Recently, North Atlanta received the honor of moving to the state level for Academic Decathlon, an scholarly subject-based competition conquered by our very own Warrior team.

The North Atlanta team took time getting ready by meeting after school during the week with their team leaders Dr. Deanna Hasty and Dr. Usha Patke. At the meetings, the students studied test materials and questions that would likely be brought up in the competition, to prepare them for what was to come. “It’s intense and they really had to push themselves,” Hasty said. “After all: What can be harder than exercising the body’s most important muscle — the brain?”  

Academic Decathlon was held on January 9 between North Atlanta and other Atlanta Public Schools high schools. The event was held at an APS office building in Atlanta and a total of 11 North Atlanta students were chosen to compete. These juniors and seniors were each from different academic and GPA levels.

At the competition, students were broken into groups and asked to answer knowledge-based trivia questions. The questions covered the 60s, including music, science, and social studies as the categories. “It was fun to answer different trivia questions and compete with other schools,” said junior Molly Neel, a participant in the decathlon.

Now that North Atlanta prevailed at the APS competition, they’re now bound for competition on the state level. The state Academic Decathlon will be held on Feb. 23 at a school in Gwinnett County. Junior Emily Song she is primed and ready to take part in the next level of the competition. “I’m very excited to be with my friends and work hard to do our best to represent North Atlanta,” Song said.

Strong in sports and strong in games of the mind: That’s North Atlanta.