Journalists named to all-state staff

By Melinda L. Lucas

A current Albany senior and two 2021 graduates have been named to the 2020-2021 All-State Journalism Staff, which is awarded by the Interscholastic League Press Conference.

Current senior Ty Everitt, a co-editor of the student newspaper The Lions Roar, along with recent graduates Tana Thompson and Hannah Trail, tallied the points required to earn a position on the statewide honorary staff that is recognized by the journalism branch of the University Interscholastic League.

Thompson is a freshman journalism major at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where she has a staff position on the student newspaper. 

Trail is a freshman at Texas Christian University majoring in business/entrepreneurship and innovation track.

Both Thompson and Trail received the same honor a year ago based on their work during the 2019-2020 school year.

“I’m am so proud of these three newspaper students,” newspaper adviser Donnie Lucas said. “They all worked hard to produce the best student paper possible, as well as participating in journalism events in UIL academics.”

Thompson and Trail placed at district and regional UIL meets, with Trail winning first place in the state editorial writing contest. Thompson qualified to complete in four of the five journalism events at the regional meet and also advanced to the state contest.

Everitt was the regional alternate in news writing.

“A minimum of 50 points is needed to be nominated coming from their UIL contests and the newspaper ILPC awards,” the sponsor said. “Hannah scored more than 100 points, while Thompson racked up over 200 points.”

He added that there were other members of the local staff who narrowly missed the 50-point requirement.

“This recognition includes all schools ranging from Class 1A through 6A,” Lucas said. “As with our newspaper overall Star Award designation, our kids are competing against the entire state regardless of school size.”