Kern County’s brightest minds annually clash at the annual Academic Decathlon, long referred to as the ‘Super Bowl’ of local scholastic competitions. High school teams face off in twn categories of the competition over two days — Speech, interviews, essays, mathematics, economics, science, music, art, social science and literature.

An “Oral Super Quiz” also takes place as part of the event. It’s a pressure-packed 90-minutes of excitement, run like a TV quiz show. Team members have ten seconds to collaborate and answer each question. Running totals are displayed on large, visible flip cards, bringing about enthusiastic reactions from the audience.