Pencils writing, Keyboards clicking, Minds set on auto-pilot mode, and coaches waiting for the most exciting moment of the day.
On Wednesday and Saturday the UIL academic teams went to district and competed at Caney Creek and successfully took home some medals. The journalism team fought hard for the second place team title.
“The best part of districts was definitely the competing portion.” junior Victoria Medina said. “I was able to compete in three events and even though it was really nerve racking, it was so fun to be around the best journalism writers in our district.”
Throughout the year the UIL coaches helped all of the competitors and did lots of practice so that they could prepare for district and regionals.
“Practice is key to success in UIL.” journalism teacher Emily Meachen said. “If a journalism student is in newspaper or yearbook, they will practice every time they write a story or headline.”
This year was the first time in many years that a competitor won in the social studies competition at district. To compete in this area, you have to read a book based on the theme for the year. This year the topic was The Rise of Factionalism, Partisanship, and the “Vices
of Democracy” in the early United States (1795-1850). The competitors also read primary sources and studied court cases from the time period.
“This was the first competitor to make it to regions, and I was ecstatic when I saw that Natalie finished third this weekend,” history teacher Michael Robinson said. “I am so proud of her, her hard work and dedication to winning this have been impressive to say the least. We are doing a few things to plan for next month’s regionals.”
For some people this was their first time competing at district, and they worked their best all year to get the best results.
“I’m so proud of myself because it felt amazing seeing my hard work pay off at district,” sophomore Natalie Mayronne said. “It was very rewarding to see that my efforts were enough.”
Students advancing to regionals are junior Isaiah Higgins in prose, senior Ella McDonald in copy editing and feature writing, senior Cory Pierce in feature writing and news writing, Victoria Medina in headline writing and feature writing, junior Annabell Smith-Grimm in poetry and senior Danica Sundquist in poetry.
“At regionals I want to leave knowing that I did what was needed to prepare myself for competition and perform my best.” senior Cory Pierce said. “I didn’t expect to make it to regionals, but I know that nothing I’ve done or will do matters if I don’t make a full effort and honest effort.”
At regionals the competitors will see many new faces that they’ve never seen before, even if you don’t take a win home they’ll still get the experience and come back better next year.
“I’m looking to forward to meeting new talent and learning from the diverse style from other competitors.” junior Isaiah Higgins said.
