It's early in the season for Academic Decathlon, but several previously successful Milwaukee-area schools are already out of the game.
The problem isn't a lack of smarts for the battle of the brains between school teams - it's a lack of coaches.
Wisconsin Academic Decathlon last week announced the 60 schools that advanced to the regional competition on Jan. 9. Officials from previously successful institutions that failed to make the list - Nicolet, Wauwatosa West, Bay View and Kettle Moraine high schools - said they didn't field teams because they couldn't find coaches to lead the groups.
"Funding has been easier to get than teachers," state Academic Decathlon Director Mollie Ritchie said. "Usually a school drops its program because a coach left or retired."
For schools around Milwaukee, and Rhinelander High School in northern Wisconsin, filling the shoes of a coach who left or gave up the position has posed problems because of the nature of the job - a time consuming, seven-month commitment if the team is successful, not counting hours inevitably spent fund raising.
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