The Amador Valley Competition Civics team has proven themselves once again. From Feb. 2 to Feb. 4, the team went to Sacramento to compete with other successful Comp Civics teams from California for a place at Nationals. Their efforts paid off, and Amador Valley won first place.
“I felt very proud. Our team worked really hard for the last two months to prepare. Most of us really did not know what to expect, but after our last round of competing on Sunday, we were positive that we would likely place. When our school was called as the winner, all of us just screamed and hugged each other. It really was an incredible experience,” said Runab Dixit (‘24).
Despite the excitement of winning first place, the achievement was backed by months of hard work and preparation by the students and their adviser AV Comp Civics teacher Stacey Sklar.
“We tried to meet in-person or online every day to practice reading testimony and answering questions we had prepared. Personally, I often spent my free time researching for more evidence and creating new possible questions we could get. I also tried to get advice from other units on how to answer questions we had or could get so we could better prepare for them,” said Anika Parkhi (‘24).
There was lots of pressure following the district and regional tournaments. Tensions were high, and the team dedicated themselves to practicing hard.
“We lost to Foothill at Regionals, so everyone wanted to come out on top for States,” said Aditya Dawar (‘24). “It’s always difficult to predict what you’re going to get asked on Q&A, so our unit spent a lot of time meeting with alumni and having everyone give us really wacky questions to ensure we could respond to anything. We were cramming until the last minute, but it all paid off.”
In the competition, students compete in teams where each team competes in units. Each unit is required to deliver testimonies, or speeches, and then respond to questions about the U.S. Constitution from the judging panel. To fully prepare themselves, the team reached out to alumni and other experienced people for extra help and advice.
“We met with our alumni, people from the team years before, who’ve gone through the same things as us. And we also met with people who work with the program, volunteers, or other people who work in politics and government who would help us. We had sessions with these people over Zoom, on weekends sometimes, and we would stay after school on some days just to practice,” said Selena Yan (‘24).
The win at State was made even better because Amador was able to beat their cross town rivals Foothill High School, who won the State Championship last year. The team can bee seen working hard every day after school and during ACCESS. They are dedicated to make sure that they are ready to perform their best at Nationals in April. The last time Sklar’s Comp Civics team won the State Championships, they went on to win Nationals.
“I am so proud of this team. They really applied themselves to the task and I am so glad that their hard work paid off,” said Sklar. “I very much look forward to bringing this group to Washington DC.”
