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SANDPOINT — Just don't look at the binder.

At more than six inches thick and packed with more facts, figures and information about a subject than a year's worth of "Jeopardy," it has scared off more than a student or two over the years.

"On paper, it sounds like 'Why would you ever take this class?," Sandpoint High School freshman Will Clark. "On paper, it's a terrible idea. But then you actually do it — and I did not want to do it."

If it wasn't for sister and team co-captain, Ellen Clark, the AcaDeca team member said he probably wouldn't have joined the team.

"But I did it and I'm really happy that I did because I've enjoyed it, and it's just, it's fun," he said. "It's not as much work as it sounds like, it's usually worth the work anyway."

For those students who stuck with it — and most did — SHS sent two teams to the state championship meet, held virtually again this year due to the ongoing pandemic. Once the tests were scored and the interviews and speeches given, SHS Team 2 finished in second place and SHS Team 1 claimed top honors in their division. And, after a brief pause, SHS Team 1 was announced as Idaho's representative for the national competition, which will be held virtually as well.

Ellen Clark also won the Philip Ourada Memorial Award for meritorious achievement in speech and interview for the highest combined speech and interview score. The team also had three overall gold medalists who will receive scholarships along with their medals: Alex Kingma (freshman, Honors division), Ellen Clark (senior, Scholastic Division), and Kjetil Lund Andersen (senior, varsity division).

An academic competition, AcaDeca separates an overarching subject, such as the Cold War, health care, or the 1960s, into 10 subjects. Students are then tested on seven of the categories as well as give speeches and take part in interviews.

"It's really good for people who like random facts," said team captain Ellen Clark, a senior at Sandpoint High School who has been on the team for all three of its back-to-back-to-back state titles. "You end up knowing a bunch of random information. While sometimes it's helpful for day to day, most of the time, it's just super random. But I love it."

Some of the questions are weird, AcaDeca team members said, pointing to a question about what the color in an abstract painting from the Cold War era meant. The artist had said there was no deeper meaning and that the art was simply that — art.

"We were like, 'Oh that's awkward,'” Clark said.

"And none of them seemed right," another AcaDeca team member said.

Another nugget of information the team thought was interesting came about through the study of Nikita Khrushchev's 1959 visit to the United States.

"So he came, he was having a good time and then he decided there's a plan to go to Disneyland," said one of the students. "He was so stoked, and then his, his security was like, 'Oh, there's a security issue here. You can't go' and he was really mad about it. That's one thing that just stuck with me. It was great."

For some, the study of abstract art — which came to prominence during the time period — was a lot of fun. For others, it lead to questions on whether it was really art.

"A lot of the art pieces that we were exposed to had really cool processes behind them," said one of the students. "Really cool underlying meanings. There was just a lot going on with all these pieces and they were very interesting, both historically in terms of the art world and just formally in the way they looked."

However, not all of the students agreed. Just calling it art, said others, doesn't make it art.

"The majority of the art wasn't very skillfully created," said one. "It was just kind of, you just throw something out there and people like it because it's supposed to be art."

Debates about what "is" art aside, the students said those kinds of discussions, learning from each other, challenging each other and taking a deep dive into what something is or it isn't, are what make AcaDeca so much fun even though on the surface, it may seem intimidating.

"It's really hard because with a lot of subjects, you kind of know what to study," said one student. "With AcaDeca, it's like, 'OK, so which part of the binder do I look at? And then which specific part of this specific part of the binder do I look at? And then which specific person do I specifically learn all the specifics about them?"

That comes with experience, from focusing on topics and subjects you're interested, and having your teammates do the same. For every person who's good at art and social sciences, there's someone who is as good at economics; for every person who is good at taking tests, there is someone who excels as interviews and speeches.

"Doing AcaDeca, especially as first year you're gonna think, 'Oh, this art is weird, this music's weird. Interview, how do I study for it," Clark said. "But the more you do it, you get a bigger and better appreciation for those things."

While winning three state titles in a row brings some self-imposed pressure, or worries of how could the new team compares to the one the previous year, those worries go away as the team meshes into one unit, said Kjetil Lund Andersen, who has competed on both state teams and national teams.

"It's kind of weird, because every team is way different than the last one," he said. "I remember the first year I did it, which was my sophomore year three years ago, we had a really strong team. And I remember thinking, 'Oh, next year, we're not going to be as strong at all. And we're going to lose state and all this stuff.'"

But the team still won state, and everyone still had fun, he said.

That's in large part, AcaDeca students said, due to teacher and coach Dana Stockman, whose leadership helps the team focus and learn, using their individual learning styles. It's fun, the students said, to hang out with other "nerds" who enjoy challenging discussions and who find learning fun.

"Absolutely worth it," said one student, adding that sometimes you'll do well on a test and other times you get a bad score. "But you're with everyone else and even if you didn't contribute a whole lot, you're there with the team and you're still on the team, you're still helping people out and you're still contributing to morale. You're making friends, making connections, and that stuff.

"I wouldn't have done all that I've done [without being on AcaDeca.] I don't talk to as many people in general. Like, there's 15 people on this team, I wouldn't talk to 15 people in my entire school year but everyone here is like a nerd like I am."

"This is fun," added another. "You might not be the smartest but you still can contribute a lot."

"The beauty of AcaDeca," Ellen Clark said, "is that you don't have to you don't have to be good at everything, no one is asking you to be good at everything … there's no weakest links. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. And so we all kind of create that one team that's a champion."

Caroline Lobsinger can be reached at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.