Rancho Cucamonga High School is located in Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino County, California. Since its founding, Rancho Cucamonga High School has fielded an Academic Decathlon team for the San Bernardino County competition. Its initial coaches were Karen Gerdes and John Nath. At that time the Academic Decathlon was a club, and students who wished to participate had to meet after school and on weekends. Starting slowly, Rancho’s varsity Academic Decathlon team eventually developed into a force to be reckoned with, vaulting into the top five in the region for 21 of its 27 years of competition. Its first team consisted of Sabrina Bow, Scott Shipley, Andy Wang, Manijha Kadir, Michael Mallari, Chanee Pruett, Amanda Gray, and Nicole Stevens. Those students began a legacy that continues to the present. Since the 1999-2000 year of competition, Rancho Cucamonga High School’s Team Purple has consistently placed in the top five in the region, spending 18 of its competitive seasons in the top three. Recently, they have also qualified for and competed at the State Championships for the past 10 consecutive years for a total of 12 years.
After two years of placing 2nd at the San Bernardino County competition, Rancho Cucamonga High School supplanted Chaffey High School as the county champions in the 2018-2019 season, with a score of 53,608.5, the highest score ever recorded in San Bernardino County. That year, they also ranked 4th in the California state competition, the highest rank that any team in San Bernardino County has ever achieved. For the 2019-2020 season, Mr. Nath's last year of coaching, Team Purple consisted of Syed Ali, Katie Fan, Galen Han, Erin Boshers, Mitul Shah, David Diaz, and Samantha Chadwick. Unfortunately, that year's state competition was swept away by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Nath was a strong leader of the team who marched with his students toward victory. He retired in 2020.
Starting with the 2020-2021 season, Rancho Cucamonga had to search for a new leader. Out of nowhere came a younger, more agile coach. Elysa Martineau, an alumnus who had competed for Rancho Cucamonga in the 2011-2012 season, came back to finally earn that first-place title that she had for so long desired. Her first Team Purple consisted of Aaron Steger, Connor Neely, Syed Ali, Erin Boshers, Machelle Kabir, Sydney Tarman, Katelin Wallace, and Obiajulu Uwaechina.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all competitions were moved to online testing platforms. Unlike in the previous year's state competition, all events still occurred.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all competitions were moved to online testing platforms. Unlike in the previous year's state competition, all events still took place.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state competition was moved to an online individual testing platform, and scores were extrapolated out of 8 events (online testing excluded speech and interview). David Diaz, for state competition, only competed in the essay event.
