Ketchikan High School
| Ketchikan High School | |
 | |
| School Founded | 1954 |
| Team Established | 1985 |
| History | Ketchikan High School is the only school from Southeast Alaska to win the Alaska state championship, and the first Alaska school to win its division at nationals. |
| City | Ketchikan, Alaska |
| Team Colors | Maroon and White |
| Principal | Richard Dormer |
| Head Coach | Sean Powell |
| Associate/Other Head Coach(es) | |
| National Championships | 2018 |
| State Championships | 2018 |
| Regional/County Championships | Not Officially Determined |
| Region/County Location | Southeast Alaska |
| Highest Finish | 24th (1st in Division III): 2018 Nationals |
| School Website | http://khs.kgbsd.org/ |
Ketchikan High School, (also known as “Kayhi”), is the main high school serving Ketchikan, Alaska, and the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District. The school's mascot is a king salmon, and students are referred to as Kings. For more information on the school, see its article on Wikipedia.
At Kayhi, Academic Decathlon is referred to as “AcDc,” and the competition has been valued as one the school’s extra-curricular activities for decades. The team won the Alaska state championship for the first time in 2018, and then went on to become Division III Champions at the 2018 Nationals.
Team History
Ketchikan High School's Academic Decathlon program has existed since at least 1985. The program was coached by Jon Wipfli from 1985-1990, and Kayhi's first recorded score comes from 1988, when the team ranked sixth in Alaska. The team was coached by Christa Bruce for two years from 1990-1992, before Don Kralis took over the program and coached until 1999. Sean Powell is the team’s current and longest-serving coach, from 1999-2013 and 2022 to the present. He oversaw some of the team’s best performances, including second place overall in 2010. Following Sean Powell’s first retirement from coaching, Candice Robb served as coach for the 2013-2014 season. Peter Stanton, who competed as a Kayhi decathlete from 2005-2009, took over as coach in 2014, and Kris Blasingame (also a former Kayhi decathlete, 2007-2009) signed on as an assistant coach soon after. Stanton and Blasingame stopped coaching after the 2021-2022 season, leading Powell to return as coach.
At the 2016 state tournament the Kayhi team ranked 4th, but fell just 9.4 points behind West Valley High School, the defending champions from 2015, and only 1,485.3 points behind champions Interior Distance Education of Alaska (IDEA), constituting the closest top-four spread in Alaska history. At the 2017 state tournament, the team achieved its highest total score ever and won second place overall, losing to Lathrop High School by only 396.5 points. The loss was the closest in Alaska since 2007.
In 2018, Ketchikan High School was the first team from Southeast Alaska to ever win the Alaska State championship. The team went on to become Division III Champions at the 2018 Nationals, the first school from Alaska to ever win its division in national competition.
Regional Tournaments
Ketchikan is one of three Academic Decathlon teams that currently compete in Southeast Alaska, the others being Craig High School and Juneau-Douglas High School. Metlakatla High School also competed until the 2017-2018 season. These teams have historically held two regional tournaments every year, one in early December and another in early January. Because the teams do not formally determine their decathletes' GPA categories at these tournaments or form qualifying teams of 6-9 decathletes, no overall winning team is decided. Traditionally, the hosting team announces the top ten individual scores in each event, the top ten individual scorers overall, and the winners of the SuperQuiz.
For years, Southeast Alaska’s January regional tournament was hosted by Ketchikan every other year, alternating with Craig High School. Juneau-Douglas High School hosted the December tournament every year during this time. Beginning in 2015, Metlakatla High School began hosting January regional tournaments, alternating with Craig, and Ketchikan moved to hosting December regional tournaments, alternating with Juneau-Douglas. During the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons, however, the Southeast teams organized a "virtual meet" in January in order to save travel costs.
Regional tournaments hosted by Ketchikan High School are held in the school library, with speeches and interviews conducted in classrooms.
State Tournament Performance
The Kayhi team has often performed well against the other large schools in the state, culminating in Kayhi winning its first state championship in 2018. However, the team has also had a few poor showings over the last decade. In 2013, in particular, only four decathletes were able to compete for the Kayhi team, accounting for the low score. Ketchikan High School placed second at the state tournament twice in the team's history, in 2010 and 2017. In both cases, Kayhi lost to Lathrop High School, and Kayhi had never scored higher than Lathrop at the state tournament until defeating them for the championship in 2018. Kayhi has the smallest student enrollment of any of the large schools competing in Alaska, and as such it is the smallest school to win the Alaska championship since 2002, when Valdez High School won.
From 2013-2018, the Kayhi team steadily increased its total score and overall performance every year. In 2016, the team's total score of 35,623.6 was the highest in Kayhi history up to that point. The team lost third place to West Valley by just 9.4 points (less than 0.03%). The difference of only 1,485.3 points (4%) between Kayhi's score and that of 2016 champions IDEA represented the closest finish between the top four teams in the history of Alaska's state tournament.
The 2017 tournament saw the team set a new record for its highest total score ever, and Kayhi won second place overall for the second time (the first being 2010). The loss to Lathrop of only 396.5 points was the closest result in Alaska since 2007, when Lathrop lost to West Valley by 115.3 points.
In 2018, Ketchikan was the first team from Southeast to ever win the Alaska State championship, scoring 42,398.3 points, the fourth-highest winning score on record in Alaska at that time.
National Tournament Performance
In 2018, Ketchikan attended the national tournament for the first and only time. The team won 25 invidual medals, including 8 gold, 6 silver, and 11 bronze, as well as $1,750 in scholarships. The team took 2nd place in SuperQuiz for Division III (small schools) and won 1st place overall in Division III, beating out Da Vinci Academy of Science & the Arts from Utah and Monmouth Academy from Maine, among others.
The win constitutes Alaska's first and only division title in national competition since the creation of divisions based on school size in 2000.
Record Board
Overall Team: 2018 State - 42,398.3
Honors: Max Varela, 2018 State - 7,665.3
Scholastic: Emme Andersen, 2018 State - 6,851
Varsity: Lydia Sumrall, 2018 State - 7,258.6
Performance Chart
| Year | State Score | State Rank | Nationals Score | Nationals Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 24,482.2 | 8 | DNC | DNC |
| 2023 | 30,330.0 | 3 | DNC | DNC |
| 2022 | 23,408.0 | 7 | DNC | DNC |
| 2021 | 33,713.0 | 3 | DNC | DNC |
| 2020 | 25,429.3 | 7 | DNC | DNC |
| 2019 | 33,177.1 | 4 | DNC | DNC |
| 2018 | 42,398.3 | 1 | 40,623.4 | 24 |
| 2017 | 38,459.5 | 2 | DNC | DNC |
| 2016 | 35,623.6 | 4 | DNC | DNC |
| 2015 | 27,914.2 | 11 | DNC | DNC |
| 2014 | 26,896.5 | 8 | DNC | DNC |
| 2013 | 18,052.9 | 16 | DNC | DNC |
| 2012 | 30,978.5 | 7 | DNC | DNC |
| 2011 | 29,709.5 | 6 | DNC | DNC |
| 2010 | 33,024.1 | 2 | DNC | DNC |
| 2009 | 33,812.3 | 4 | DNC | DNC |
| 2008 | 33,537.9 | 5 | DNC | DNC |
| 2007 | 32,456.6 | 5 | DNC | DNC |
| 2006 | - | - | DNC | DNC |
| 2005 | 30,014.3 | 5 | DNC | DNC |
| 1988 | - | 6 | DNC | DNC |
