Just as Santonio Holmes was the Most Valuable Player in professional football’s Super Bowl a week earlier, a case can be made that Daniel Ray may deserve that title for his role in determining the outcome of the 29th annual Kern County Academic Decathlon held at Bakersfield High School on Feb. 7. Ray recorded four individual category wins and had the highest individual point total of all the competitors, leading Stockdale to the team title and the Claude W. Richardson Perpetual Trophy. Overall, Stockdale won nine of the 10 contested academic categories to win the Academic Decathlon over second place Bakersfield High. Cesar Chavez of Delano finished third. Approximately 200 students from 23 high schools participated in this clash of Kern County’s brightest high school minds, subtitled by some as the “Academic Super Bowl.” Students have their knowledge, presentation and problem-solving skills tested in 10 academic arenas — Art, Economics, Essay, Interview, Language and Literature, Mathematics, Music, Science, Speech and Super Quiz (written and oral) — tied to this year’s national theme, “Latin America.” Stockdale will represent Kern County in the California Academic Decathlon scheduled for March 13-16 in Sacramento. The state winner advances to the national finals April 22-25 in Memphis, TN. “Last year it was fantastic, especially being the first school in Kern County history to make the top 10 at state,” said Stockdale High student team captain Mike Brown. “We are looking at how much better we have scored on the tests this year, and I think this team could be even better than the one we sent last year.” More