Lions Roar earns 20th straight Star Award
By Melinda L. Lucas
The Lions Roar staff at Albany High School now has two decades of Star Awards on the wall after earning its 20th consecutive state recognition with a Silver Star at last weekend’s annual Interscholastic League Press Conference in Austin.
The Albany High School student newspaper received its first of the coveted Star awards in 2006, and current staff members learned of the 2025 award at the traditional ceremony held Sunday morning in the LBJ Library on the University of Texas campus in Austin.
The newspaper was awarded a Silver Star as an overall evaluation of the publication, which includes other school papers from all over the state ranging from middle school to Class 6A, including private schools.
Albany’s Star count is now at eight Gold Stars, nine Silver Stars, and three Bronze Stars.
“I am very proud of this year’s staff. They’ve worked really hard with the goal of continuing to get a Star,” newspaper adviser Donnie Lucas said. “We are always aiming for Gold, but any Star Award is an honor considering the competition is among all the newspapers in the state – Class 1A through 6A.”
ILPC typically gives out just four or five plaques at each Star level, awarded mostly to 5A and 6A schools. This year, the Lions Roar was one of just 16 newspapers to be awarded a Star, making it one of the top newspapers in the state among all classifications. For 2025, there were six Gold, four Silver, and six Bronze Stars awarded.
The only disappointment of the weekend was that no one came home with a Tops in Texas award this year.
Tops in Texas winners are considered the very best of entries received for a particular category among the 30 Individual Achievement Awards (IAA) contests.
Albany competes for IAA places in the middle school, junior high, and Class 1A- 3A division, this year winning 11 first places, 10 second places, 10 third places, and four honorable mentions.
“It’s been another great year for the newspaper staff,” Lucas said.
IAA Awards
Local students earned a total of 34 Individual Achievement awards, including the following.
News writing – 1. Adrian Wren
News feature – 2. Kylee Bennett
Editorial writing – 1. Avery Everitt and Cade Fairchild
Sports news story – 1. Keira Caudel, 3. Levi New
Sports feature story – 1. Logan Balliew, 2. Adrian Wren
Feature writing – HM Gabby Lopez
Entertainment feature – HM Keira Caudel
Photo story – 3. Julia Vega
Sports column – 3. Landon Balliew
In-depth news/feature package – 1. Landon Balliew, Holden Sanchez, Rowdy New
Infographic/sidebar – 1. Holden Sanchez, 2. Logan Balliew
Cartoon – 3. Keira Caudel
Sports page/spread design – 1. Gabby Lopez, 3. Landon Balliew
Feature page/spread deaign – 1. Avery Everitt, 3. Avery Everitt
Entertainment page/spread design – 2. Holden Sanchez
News page/spread design – 3. Julia Vega
Page one newspaper design – 1. Avery Everitt, 2. Avery Everitt
General news photo – 1. Julia Vega, 2. Julia Vega
Feature photo – 1. Julia Vega, 3. Holden Sanchez
Entertainment photo – 2. Julia Vega
Sports action photo –2. Julia Vega, HM Julia Vega
Sports feature photo – HM Julia Vega
Portrait – 2. Julia Vega
Photo portfolio – 3. Julia Vega
Headlines – 3. Albany staff
ILPC is the journalism division of the University Interscholastic League (UIL).
The state-level convention for middle and high school journalism students includes workshops and the announcing of awards for the current school year.
