Durango High School

Durango High School[1] is located in the small, historic mining town of Durango[2] in the spectacular San Juan Mountains[3] of Southwest Colorado.

Academic Decathlon

The DHS Academic Decathlon team won its first Colorado State Championship title in the year 2000 under coach Kathy Parcell, now retired. Damian Nash has been the AcaDeca coach since 2004-05. In 2007 Durango again claimed the state title with a score of 37,391 -- edging out the perennial state powerhouse, Boulder High School, by fewer than 150 points. Unfortunately, there were problems with the subjective event scores which resulted in a disputed finish. The State Director ultimately declared a tie and then sent Durango to Nationals in Honolulu, based on the official scores announced at the awards ceremony.

Significant Accomplishments

• Only team from West of the Continental Divide ever to win the Colorado state title. (The same is true for chess).

• Highest team score was 40,877 set at the 2008 competition where the DHS team earned 49 out of 106 medals. (DHS placed close second to Boulder High School, which also earned 49 medals).

• Highest individual score is 7515, posted by Andriena Barendt in 2008. The previous record was set by Derek Webb who led the 2007 state champion team with 7013.

• At the 2007 Nationals the Durango team won the "Rookie Team of the Year" award for Division II.