The journalism team, larger than ever this year, competed in their first practice meet of the year earlier this month, earning more points than any of the other teams in the Cen-Tex competition. In their size division, there was a total of nine schools entered.

“I’m really excited that we did so well out of schools from across central Texas,” adviser Melonie Menefee said. “Many of the schools we were competing against have strong journalism programs, and so to have several awards was really exciting. We have work still to do before district UIL, but we are off to a great start.”

Students competed in News Writing, Editorial Writing, Headline Writing and Feature Writing, with some returning students competing in multiple events.

“It was invigorating,” sophomore Lilah Molina said, “I like being under pressure and I’m glad we are getting a jump start on the writing this year.”

The team who consist of almost all new students, keeps surprising their coach. With having almost 150 stories updated on Bison Beat, already knowing three out of four events, every girl on collecting points for All-State Journalism Staff.

“My expectations for the rest of this year is that we are going to meet goals beyond what we have done in the past,” Menefee said. “We are keeping the newspaper and Facebook more updated than ever before, and that will give us tons of choices for entries for state competition in the spring.I have high hopes that we will once again be district UIL champs and do well at state competition.”

The journalism team historically takes first place at district and has had at least one writer move on through regionals to state for the past several years. The group is hopeful for a repeat performance this year.

“I think with the great team that we have this year that it won’t be hard for us,” Molina said. “I’m just anxious to see how this year plays out.”