Academic Decathlon Handed Down to Esteemed AP World and Human Geography Teacher

Joe Mickeliunas has been instructing AP World History and AP Human Geography for the past years at Central. This year, he added another class to his course load, as he is the new coach of Academic Decathlon, more frequently known as ‘Acadeca’ or ‘Deca’. Academic Decathlon is what Mickeliunas describes as ‘a comprehensive study of a subject throughout the year’. This year the class is studying Africa in depth, examining elements of art, literature, history, and much more throughout the year leading up to district, state, and national competitions.  

Prior to Mickeliunas teaching the course, Vicki Deniston-Reed, an esteemed World History teacher known for being tough but meritorious, had been coaching the group for much of recent Central history. “I don’t know how long she had been coaching for sure”, he said, “but there’s nobody else that I know who has had control of it”.  

Mickeliunas stated that Deniston-Reed was ready to move on from coaching the course, despite her love for it. She decided to pass on the honor to someone else before she knew the subject that the class would be studying that year, in order to resist the temptation of staying for something she was interested in. “It’s very time consuming for the teacher to coach the students and prepare them for competitions”, Mick stated. “I think she was just ready to be done.” 

“I was asked if I would be interested, and I had to think about it for a while because I knew it would be a large time commitment, but my load of AP World lightened.” He said. 

Despite the pressure of living up to his predecessor, Mick is optimistic about starting a new class. He is confident that this year’s team will be able to perform at a high-caliber level, although he has not yet chosen who will represent Central at competitions. The class can be taken to learn the content or to compete, as only a certain amount of people can be placed on the team. Even this early in the year, Mick says that he has an idea of who will be on the team. “I’ve got a pretty good idea of who my leaders are, and how they will compete.” 

He is grateful for the senior leadership in the class, as he said that the only substantial challenge with the course is that there is no real way to teach it. “The students have to be driven enough to study, so in a sense I am more of a coach than I am a teacher. It’s challenged me to take on the role of something that I’ve never really done before.”  

With the help of the students who have been competing in Academic Decathlon for years, Mickeliunas is prepared to take on the challenge of a new class. “I plan on holding on to it for as long as I can”, he said. “I think we have an incredible group this year”.