On March 24, UIL participants at Crosby High School entered 21 events at the Needville UIL District meet, and received a total of 406 points. The Region competition will take place on April 21 at Sam Houston State University where a total of eight other districts from East Texas will be competing, averaging about sixty-four  schools in total. Sixteen Crosby students will be advancing to support us at the upcoming competition.

            Continuing their winning tradition, the Journalism Team received first place at the district level. They advanced along with the other two top teams from Dayton and Barber’s Hill. From regionals, the top three schools advance to the state competition. The individual participants won several awards in four different writing events, with a Crosby High School student winning first place in each.

            In News Writing, Jo Jo Crowder brought home a first place medal, and Erin Valentine came back with a second place medal. Both will be competing at the Region competition to see which competitor can most effectively craft an essay about a news article they are assigned, addressing the famous five W’s of any great news story; who, what, when, where and why.

The purpose of Feature Writing, the second journalism event, is to tell the reader a story. It has a beginning, also known as the lead, middle, and an end like most stories. However, it is different from News Writing in the sense that the quotes provided allow the reader to see the story through detailed description and vivid imagery. A feature story is considered to most “fluffy” of all the events, because of the emotional and personal feelings behind the writing. Cara Strickhausen received first place and Sierra Baumbach received second place both advancing to Region, while Jo Jo Crowder received alternate.

The third event the journalism team will compete in is Editorial Writing. In this event, competitors receive 45 minutes to write a persuasive opinionated article of no more than 200 words. One must present the situation given in the prompt, and either support or oppose the policy or action addressed.  After clearly stating their views on the matter, they will then provide ideas to support their opinion, along with providing steps that should be taken to resolve this issue. Erin Valentine placed first in editorial, while Cara Strickhasen received third and Rosie Cruz received alternate.

The final journalism event is Headline Writing. In this event competitors are given six short stories with 45 minutes to create a headline for each of them. Each headline must follow the rules specified for it. There will be a certain number of characters (letters, numbers, spaces, punctuation marks) and a certain number of lines provided. “Headline Writing is my favorite event, because it’s like a puzzle,” says Erin Valentine, “each word must fit perfectly.”

Aside from the journalism writing events, competitors can also compete in Ready Writing where students are given two hours to write expository compositions. They are given a choice between two prompts, each an excerpt from literature, publications or speeches. Receiving first place, Erin Valentine will be representing Crosby in Ready Writing at Region.

Although the journalism team brought home an impressive seven awards, there are many other events to compete in other than journalism or writing events. For example, one can also compete in computer applications, a technology based event that focuses on the speed and accuracy of word processing along with the effective use of databases and spreadsheet applications. This event challenges students to develop a thorough, working knowledge of these applications; along with the ability to complete substantial tasks in each of them. However, if typing and navigating through a database is not one’s forte, there are many other events to participate in.

            There are many events that pertain to core classes such as science, mathematics, social studies, and english. In these events, students take a timed multiple choice test and write an essay. These events are formatted to challenge the competitor’s knowledge in these subjects. The competitor with the highest scores then advance to the next tournament where the difficulty of the testing increases.

            Crosby’s science team received second place at the district competition, and Rene Novoa received first place in the Social Studies event advancing to Regionals. Chris Paradowski, Robert Cadotte, Rene Novoa, and Joseph Fuselier also consisted of the first place Current Issues and Events team. UIL Academics consists of several speaking events such as Persuasive Speaking where Lesly Gutierez received first place, Prose, where Nick Swanson received second place, Poetry, and Informative Speaking, where Josh Jennings received first place and Ashley Lance received second.

            All in all, it has been an impressive year for Crosby during the UIL season. “I am really proud of my UIL kids,” says Mrs. Londene, “this is the closest we have ever been to receiving first place!” Crosby was only 28 points behind the first place school at District, Barber’s Hill, and is preparing to compete at the upcoming Region competition.