Oliver Wendell Holmes High School

Oliver Wendell Holmes/Business Careers High School
[[Image:|center||Oliver Wendell Holmes/Business Careers High School logo]]
School Founded	1964 (Holmes), 1991 (Business Careers)
Team Established	1985-1986
History	Holmes won 15 of 17 Region IV titles from 1992-2008, one state title (1994) and four top five finishes.
City	San Antonio, Texas
Team Colors	Green, Gold, and White
Principal	Ada Bohlken
Head Coach	Diana Johnston, Diana Mills, Robert Stafford
Associate/Other Head Coach(es)
National Championships	None
State Championships	1, (1994)
Regional/County Championships	15 (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
Region/County Location	Region IV
Highest Finish	Third in National Finals (1994)
School Website	{{{website}}}

Oliver Wendell Holmes High School, is a school located in San Antonio, Texas. From the 1990s to 2008, Holmes was dominant at Regional Competitions, winning all but two regional competitions from 1992 to 2008 (2000 and 2002) and was highly competitive at the State level during this time, persistently ranking in the top ten at state in this same time period, securing a state title in 1994, a second place finish in 2006, a third place finish in 2005, a fourth place finish in 1997 and two fifth place finishes (1995 and 2007). After 2009, Holmes has since only qualified for state in 2011, 2016 and 2017.

Opening Years (1985-1993)

Holmes founded its first AD team, with Adriano M. Gonzalez as the coach in 1985-86. The team first qualified for state in 1988-1989.

Out of the Blue (1994)

In 1994, Holmes exited the Region competitions as a Region Champion, and for the first time, had amassed a point total higher than the perennial State Championship power Richardson J.J. Pearce. Holmes fought off J.J. Pearce, Garland, Plano Senior, and Katy Taylor to win their first State Championship title in Holmes Academic Decathlon History. Holmes then received the chance to compete at the National level. Despite an excellent performance, Holmes lost SuperQuiz (which was Relay-only until the late nineties) by a single question to California William Howard Taft and Massachusetts. Holmes also became the first Texas team to finish Bronze (3rd), snapping a four year win streak for Texas.

Remaining Competitive (1995-1997)

1995 saw the Huskies attempt to defend their state title. The Huskies won their sixth straight Regional title, but finished fifth at state, ending the repeat bid. 1996 and 1997 was more of the same, with Holmes winning region and continuing to stay in the top ten.

Return to Prominence (1998)

1998 was a classic year for the Huskies. Led by Angel Arellano, the number one varsity at state, Holmes won region and then entered state second, just behind Katy Taylor. However, Holmes could not hold on to the surge, as Katy Taylor repeated as State Champions, and Holmes finished fourth.

Strong performances and setbacks (1999-2002)

While Holmes remained competitive at the state level, the Huskies won their tenth straight region title in 1999, but in 2000, disaster struck. Holmes lost the Region competition to Judson High School, the first loss in Region since 1990. Despite the loss, Holmes advanced to state, and destroyed Judson in the rankings, but fell to Katy James E. Taylor. 2001 saw the Region title return to Holmes, and Holmes finished tenth at state. One of the many bright spots for 2001 was when Holmes student Brad Goodine (a freshman), made the team, the first occurrence of this feat happening at Holmes. 2001 also saw the arrival of Juliana Sanchez as one of the Holmes coaches.

2002, however, was the opposite of 2001. Holmes lost the Region title again, this time to Northside Taft (led by Brian Lawerence). The 2002 State competition would only add to the Huskies woes, as Holmes finished 19th at state, their worst finish since the late eighties. In addition, 2002 brought about a legal dispute as who won the state competition between Lubbock and J. Frank Dobie High School. In the end, the Texas Academic Decathlon's ruling that Lubbock won was upheld, and Lubbock represented the state at Nationals.

Back to Normal (2003)

In 2003, Holmes won the Region title for the 12th time, and progressed to state, where the Huskies finished with just over 45,000 points and in sixth place.

Breezes of Change (2004)

2004 began to see a change in Holmes' fortunes at the State level of competition. After securing another sixth place finish in 2003, seniors Kristina Mcdonald, Shirley Field, Minh Tran and Charles Kirtland (who made the team for the first time in 2004) were joined by juniors James Hall, David Urrabazo, Jr., Huy Nguyen and sophomore Joseph Bayona. This new team of nine won another Region IV title, and entered state in sixth place. Despite a considerable improvement in objective scores, the team struggled with subjectives and ended the year in seventh place.

Although the team would see McDonald, Field, Tran and Kirtland depart (all due to graduation), the team now had a new core that would all make the team the following year.

The Return to Glory (2005-2008)

The 2004-2005 academic year saw some additional changes to the team. One, the team added Sherrie Linsteadt (who up until the end of 2003-04 was a coach of the Foy H. Moody Trojans of Corpus Christi) as a coach. Joseph Bayona, James Hall, Fart Jackson, Huy Nguyen, David Urrabazo, Jr. all secured a second year on the team, and were joined by freshman Norman Bayona (one of Joseph's younger brothers), juniors Jon-Ross Trevino and April Rose Ledesma and senior Daniel Cassel. This new team of nine continued Holmes' success in regional competition, easily securing another regional title (beating out Northside Taft by a considerable margin), and entered the state competition in 3rd place, but just 800 points away from the first place finisher in the entire state. Despite their best efforts, the team was not able to make up the ground, and finished in third place among Large Schools.

The 2005-2006 year saw a considerable rebuilding effort to make up for the departures of of James Hall (the number one varsity), Huy Nguyen, Daniel Cassel and David Urrabazo (the number three scholastic). Nevertheless, Holmes was determined to finally win state in 2006 for the first time since 1994. The team then added Redmond-Craig Anderson, Lesly Espana, Lindsey Francesco, and Michael Whitaker.

The Huskies easily won a pair of pre-regional competitions, including the Northside Invitational and the King Meet. At regionals, Holmes continued their regional dominance, winning their fourth consecutive regional title (with Tom C. Clark in second place) by a margin of nearly 7,000 points, and had seven of the nine Decathletes on the team secure a medal in the overall individual scores. Holmes entered state in second place, but subjective scores as well as only modest gains in objectives compared to Plano Senior High School (who ultimately won the title), the Huskies finished in second place. Joseph Bayona was first place overall varsity, and Lindsey Francesco was Fifth place overall varsity.

In 2007, Holmes won a tougher region competition, despite losing Joseph Bayona, April Rose Ledesma, Lindsey Francesco, and Fart Jackson (Thank God) to graduation in 2006. Holmes finished fifth in state, and Norman Bayona finished fifth overall scholastic.

2008 saw the Huskies win their sixth consecutive region championship, scoring 44,202 points and edging out Sandra Day O'Connor by just 532 points. At state, the Huskies finished 9th at state, a drop of one place since entering state in 2008 at 8th place, but Holmes managed a small gain in points overall, while Norman Bayona finished 3rd overall Varsity.

Rebuild (2009)

By the 2008-2009 year, Holmes had won fifteen of the past seventeen regional titles, and had their sights set on region title #16. However, by the regional competition, Holmes found itself in a tough situation with a surging team from district rival Earl Warren. Indeed, Warren did win that regional title, and Holmes finished third. Holmes still managed to qualify for state, but in 21st position. At state, Holmes finished in 24th, which became the lowest state ranking post-state competition at that time. Regardless, the team did achieve two prominent accomplishments: John Kim won second place in the Scholastic division, and Adriano Gonzalez won the Coach of The Year award.

The long road since (2009-Present)

After falling short in 2009 at Regionals and finishing 24th in State, the Huskies looked to regroup. However, the Huskies fell to 7th at Regionals in 2010, missing State for the first time since the eighties. The Huskies managed to advance to state again in 2011, finishing 30th. After 2011, the Huskies would not qualify for state again until 2016, finishing again in 30th.

The Huskies would go back-to-back in advancing to state, this time finishing in 27th (and surprisingly, finishing as the best Large School in Region IV at State that year).

In 2017-18, the Huskies made a valiant effort to qualify for state for the third consecutive year, but fell agonizingly short by a few hundred points, despite finishing in 3rd at Region.

Final Rankings

Year	Region Rank	Region Score	State Rank	State Score	Nationals Rank	Nationals Score
2018	3rd	38,264.8	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
2017	3rd	38,746.2	27th	38,442.3	DNQ	DNQ
2016	2nd	38,707.7	30th	40,062.9	DNQ	DNQ
2015	5th	30,516	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
2014	4th	34,835	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
2013	6th	31,696.3	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
2012	6th	32,068	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
2011	4th	34,499	30th	37,505.2	DNQ	DNQ
2010	7th	33,234	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
2009	3rd	39,708	24th	?	DNQ	DNQ
2008	CHAMPIONS	?	9th	44,300	DNQ	DNQ
2007	CHAMPIONS	?	5th	?	DNQ	DNQ
2006	CHAMPIONS	?	2nd	?	DNQ	DNQ
2005	CHAMPIONS	?	3rd	?	DNQ	DNQ
2004	CHAMPIONS	?	7th	?	DNQ	DNQ
2003	CHAMPIONS	?	6th	?	DNQ	DNQ
2002	2nd	?	19th	?	DNQ	DNQ
2001	CHAMPIONS	?	9th	?	DNQ	DNQ
2000	2nd	?	7th	?	DNQ	DNQ
1999	CHAMPIONS	?	6th	?	DNQ	DNQ
1998	CHAMPIONS	?	4th	?	DNQ	DNQ
1997	CHAMPIONS	?	6th	?	DNQ	DNQ
1996	CHAMPIONS	?	?	?	DNQ	DNQ
1995	CHAMPIONS	?	5th	?	DNQ	DNQ
1994	CHAMPIONS	?	CHAMPIONS	48,070	3rd	46,xxx
1993	CHAMPIONS?	?	?	?	DNQ	DNQ
1992	CHAMPIONS?	?	?	?	DNQ	DNQ

Team Rosters

Coaches are in bold.

2008

Honors	Scholastic	Varsity
Adam Brown	John Kim	Norman Bayona, Jr.
Victor Castano	Charles Mercer, IV	Alex Calleros
Megan Cobarruvias	Hannah Swafford	Travis Kirtland

Coaches: Adriano M. Gonzalez, Juliana Sanchez, Sherrie Linsteadt, Vilma Lang, David Alvarado

2007

Honors	Scholastic	Varsity
Redmond-Craig Anderson	Norman Bayona, Jr.	Johnathan (J.D.) Diaz
Megan Cobarruvias	Charles Mercer, IV	?
Jon-Ross Trevino	?	?

Coaches: Adriano M. Gonzalez, Juliana Sanchez, Sherrie Linsteadt, Vilma Lang, David Alvarado

2006

Honors	Scholastic	Varsity
April Rose Ledesma	Norman Bayona, Jr.	Joseph Bayona
Redmond-Craig Anderson	Kort Everett Jackson	Lindsey Francesco
Jon-Ross Trevino	Lessly Espana	Michael Whitaker

Coaches: Adriano M. Gonzalez, Juliana Sanchez, Sherrie Linsteadt, Vilma Lang, David Alvarado

2005

Honors	Scholastic	Varsity
April Rose Ledesma	David Urrabazo, Jr.	James Hall
Vinh Le Huy Nguyen	Norman Bayona, Jr.	Joseph Bayona
Jon-Ross Trevino	Kort Everett Jackson	Daniel Cassel

Coaches: Adriano M. Gonzalez, Juliana Sanchez, Sherrie Linsteadt, Vilma Lang, David Alvarado

2004 State

Honors	Scholastic	Varsity
Kristina McDonald	Minh Tran	James Hall
Shirley Field	David Urrabazo, Jr.	Joseph Bayona
Vinh Le Huy Ngyuen	Charles Kirtland	Kort Everett Jackson*

Coaches: Adriano M. Gonzalez, Juliana Sanchez, Vilma Lang, David Alvarado

* KEJ was a varsity student all three years, but was competing as a scholastic at every meet except the 2004 State Meet.

2004 Regionals

Honors	Scholastic	Varsity
Kristina McDonald	Minh Tran	James Hall
Shirley Field	David Urrabazo, Jr.	Charles Kirtland
Vinh Le Huy Ngyuen	Kort Everett Jackson	Joseph Bayona

Coaches: Adriano M. Gonzalez, Juliana Sanchez, Vilma Lang, David Alvarado

Coaching History

Adriano M. Gonzalez (1985-Present)

June Newton (1984/1985-1986/1987?; 1994/1995-1999/2000)

Sandra Gardner (1987/1988?-1993/1994)

Juliana Sanchez (2000/2001-Present)

Vilma Lang (2002/2003?-Present)

Sherrie Linstedt (2004/2005-2007/2008)

Scores

Year	Score	Rank
2008	44,300	9
2007	43,161	5
2006	44,311	2
2005	44,983	3
2004	43,843	7
2003	45,042	6
2002	42,451	19
2001	40,116	10
2000	47,862	7
1999	-	6
1998	46,779	4
1997	-	6
1996	45,035	9
1995	-	-
1994	46,362	1
1993	42,929	12