Update: 5:53 p.m., April 6, 2026 James A. Garfield High School placed 5th in Division II of the California Academic Decathlon and ranked among the top 15 teams in the state.
On a Friday afternoon, it’d be understandable for a group of teenagers to have their minds on the weekend ahead. But at East LA’s James A. Garfield High School, a group of decathlete students were firing off questions about music composition and physics.
They discussed key themes from “The Great Gatsby” — love, wealth and social mobility — and quizzed each other on their knowledge of the Jazz Age, including the musicians, labor movements and economic conditions of the time.
They’d twirl their pens up in the air, signaling that their answers were correct.
“Have confidence,” Garfield High math teacher Brian Cheng, the head coach for the school’s Academic Decathlon team, would say when he sensed hesitancy.
This weekend, their hours of studying will be put to the test at the California Academic Decathlon in Santa Clara. Garfield High is among the eight LAUSD schools advancing to the state competition after winning — for the first time in history — the district’s 45th annual Academic Decathlon, a series of competitive events that includes delivering speeches and taking tests in art, literature, math, science, economics, social science and music. The Roaring ’20s is this year’s theme.
The East LA decathletes surpassed Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, which won the district competition back-to-back in 2023 and 2024. Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga won it last year. Garfield High — with its legacy of Jaime Escalante, the math teacher immortalized in the film “Stand and Deliver” for helping his Mexican American students master advanced calculus — took the top district prize after not even qualifying for state in 2025.
“A lot of them showed a lot of grit,” said Cheng, 25.
“That has been the main talk of East LA, just showing how a team that didn’t even qualify for state competition last year can pull off a win and get first place,” Cheng said. “I think a lot of that has to do with that symbol that Jaime Escalante is.”
Cheng said the team’s camaraderie and time commitment got them to the top.
“Many people feel like we are just natural-born geniuses. … But behind the scenes, there’s a lot of time that gets put in, and a lot of support that the team has to provide for each other in order for us to succeed,” Cheng said. “A big part of it is the love of the game. I think many students, especially in the decathlon program, really want to learn more beyond what is taught in the core subjects in school.”
Derek Dominguez, a junior decathlete at Garfield High, got “hooked” on Academic Decathlon by the opportunity to create bonds with fellow students while learning a diversity of subjects. As a decathlete, Dominguez has gotten a chance to dive into physics, electricity and magnetism. He doesn’t see it as additional schoolwork. “It’s more learning,” he said.
For Garfield High to win against schools like Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies is significant, Dominguez said.
“We have a lot of pride in our community,” he said. “With a majority of us being Mexican American and Salvadoran American … The fact that we’re a group of students who are able to outdo schools in the Valley, schools with a lot more funding, it just means that much more to us.”
“We have coaches who really believe in us, no matter what our background is or what color our skin is,” he said. Escalante, Dominguez said, believed in Chicano youth. “He knew our true limits and our true capacities,” he added.
Liana Lopez, a freshman decathlete, said she read excerpts of “The Great Gatsby” “over and over again” in preparation for the Academic Decathlon. She also listened to a lot of jazz, particularly in the mornings as she got ready for school. “At first, I didn’t like it. It was just lyric-less. I just heard beats. But, as you listen to it more, you realize the depth,” Lopez said.
“There’s one song called ‘Charleston,’ which was a big dance craze. I think that just embodies the spirit of 1920. It’s very fun. It makes you want to dance,” she said.
Lopez was initially unsure if she could excel as a decathlete. The amount of studying and knowledge she had to retain felt daunting, but her family, coaches and fellow decathletes pushed her to persevere.
“I wanted to push through and show that, even from a community like Boyle Heights [and] East LA, we’re capable of doing it,” Lopez said. “I think that is why I also tried so hard, because I wanted to be able to say, ‘We are LAUSD champions.’”
Joseph Villa, a senior, became a decathlete after his honors biology teacher encouraged him to join. It would require a lot of studying, but “it’s about family,” he recalled his teacher saying. “I was a little skeptical at first, but I decided to take on the challenge. I was happy that someone believed in me,” Villa said.
Now, Villa has emerged as a top LAUSD decathlon scorer, coming in third districtwide with 8,267.5 points out of 10,000. While Villa has typically excelled in STEM, Academic Decathlon taught him he can also score high in art and literature.
It’s not about having the highest GPA, Villa said. “It really is about lifting each other up … When we’re having a bad day, or when we’re struggling with a certain math, science or economics topic, we all try to uplift each other. We’re like a big family.”
Achieving success as a Garfield High student means that much more.
“We study so [many] hours, and for it to pay off, it really feels amazing. Being a kid from East LA and Boyle Heights, a lot of people tend to sort of look down on me for my background,” he said. “Being able to sort of prove them wrong definitely feels even better.”
