Senior Aaron Daniel Lane sits hunched over his computer screen, his headphones in and a colorized version of the 1950 adaptation of “Harvey” playing on his phone screen. He is working on his state submission for KSPA, however his mind is on other things. “I’ve been really tired lately,” Lane said. “And I sometimes feel like I’m just living life to the next nap.” Despite this, he qualified for state in news design. “It was a surprise to me,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d get past the first judges.”
Senior Tatum Greule’s geometrically-focused basketball photo unfortunately did not place in the sports action photography regional competition, but his talent and credentials are clear. “My overall experience with photography is extensive: I’ve done senior photos, couples, cars, diplomatic, landscape, artistic portraits, sports, etc,” Greule said. “I’ve had work held in an exhibit in Kansas City, and hopefully I will participate in more in the future.”
Senior Abigail Nichols competed in the KSPA district tournament in yearbook design, sports writing and copy writing, placing in all three categories which allowed her to compete in state. “At first, I felt more confident in the yearbook design because I’ve had practice with that,” Nichols said. “But when I placed higher in sports writing, I feel more confident in that.” Nichols main source of inspiration when creating her pages was Pinterest. “I use Pinterest for everything,” Nichols said. “I have 10,000 pins just for yearbook pages.” After looking at her competition, Nichols felt confident in her ability to move on to state. “I was really surprised because it’s my first time competing and now that I know what I’m doing, I feel confident against the other journalists,” Nichols said.
Senior Amariel Slater competed in the Advertising Design competition for the KSPA regional contest. Slater was tasked with creating an advertisement for an animal shelter. Slater chose to do the competition because she enjoys the creative process. “I love being creative and making new things,” Slater said. “I thought it would be interesting to try making an ad.” Leading up to the competition, Slater was nervous about participating in her first design contest. “I was really nervous because I’ve never done a competition like this before,” Slater said. “And admittedly, I did forget about it for a while.” Slater took fourth place in her category. She was proud to see her result. “I was really proud of myself,” Slater said. “I didn’t think I would place at all.”
Wyatt Jones placed 6th in the state of Kansas for newspaper sports writing at the KSPA celebration! Please enjoy a blurb about him, written before the KSPA celebration by editor Aaron Lane.
Sophomore Wyatt Jones, a renaissance man if ever there could be one, a scholar, an athlete, a musician, an actor, and today, a journalist. Jones placed in two categories, a distinction given to only the greatest of newspapermen. For those at home, Jones qualified for state in both feature and sports writing, in fact he was awarded silver in the latter category. “All I can say,” Jones said. “Is that I’m hungry for more.”
Qualifying for the KSPA state competition with a placement of 3rd in headline writing and design, junior Mariah Brown had until April 2 to turn in the state competition, awaiting the results to be released on May 2. Brown was made to design multiple headlines following the guidelines given. “It was stressful, thinking about how many students are in Kansas,” Brown said. “It was overwhelming, but it was okay.”
Junior Jonah Slack placed fifth at the sports action photography regional competition, submitting a striking photo of a softball pitcher mid-motion. Slack is an avid photographer, passionate about his chosen medium because of the emotions he’s able to capture. “Photography allows me to capture other people’s joy, winning moments, and overall good experiences and memories,” Slack said. “In allowing others to relive those moments, it brings me joy.”
Placing third in copyediting in regionals, junior Adrienne Morrow is heading into state uncertain. Morrow had to take a multiple-choice test on a multitude of news writing skills, along with giving feedback on a writer’s first draft. “I was stressed for regionals, the story was a very dense story to edit with a lot of problems, so I thought I had missed some things,” Morrow said. “But the state piece was easier because I knew what to expect, but because it felt easier, I don’t think I did well.”
Brooklyn Wieland, a junior, competed in the Academic Photography contest for regionals. For the competition, she took a picture of Patient Care Tech students at TCALC practicing finger pricking on each other. Before her competition, Wieland was worried about her captions. “I was kind of nervous since I wasn’t really confident in my captions,” Wieland said. Although she did not place this year, she continues to practice her skills to try again next year.
