Two weeks into the school year, journalism coach Emily Meachen is already recruiting people for UIL and preparing for district in March.
There will be a meeting on September 3 in Meachen’s room (A201) to sign up for events and prepare for the Boo-vitational on September 14.
“This is a great time to join UIL,” Meachean said. “If someone joins now, they’ll have until March to get ready for the district meet at Caney Creek.”
Coaches are thrilled to welcome new students and have begun preparation for District this year at Caney Creek.
“This season I’m most excited for our prose and poetry kids because we have a full team so I’ve got more kids joining in,” prose and poetry coach Meg Stanley said. “I’m excited to get them started and get more kids interested in it. I’m also really excited for competition cause my team and I are really competitive, so I’m excited to see how they do this year, get started on things earlier so when March comes around we’re ready to go and hopefully take home some medals this year.”
Goals are set high this year for existing UIL journalism competitors.
“My goal for this UIL season is to become an All-State journalist,” senior Ella McDonald said. “I have to compete in almost every event offered at every meet in order to get enough points towards being a part of the All-State journalism team. Last year was my first year doing anything journalism related, and I have fallen in love with it.”
Existing competitors are challenging themselves this year by competing in more events than they did last year.
“This year I am adding in Poetry Interpretation,” senior Danica Sundquist said. “I have always enjoyed competing in speaking events, and I hope that I can apply what I have learned in extemp to poetry and vice versa. I know it’s going to be a lot of work and make my time at competitions even more hectic but I am still super excited. I am always in favor of practicing more, and I hope to hear what tips some of the officials have on my events.”
UIL competitors are ecstatic to learn more from their peers.
“I’m adding persuasive speech this year which is a new category for me,” junior Zoe Mendes said. “I’m excited to meet new people and learn from others. My main goal is to go to state for not only DECA but also UIL.”
