WH academic team wins UIL championship
BY BRITTNI BARNETT WHS Paw Prints staff

Members of the Whitehouse High School academic team, which won first place at UIL competition.

For the second year in a row, the Whitehouse High School UIL Academic Team brought home the District 17-4A championship. They won the March 31st competition at Hallsville High School with a total of 393 points.

"This second district championship is a total team effort," UIL Academic Coordinator John Keeling said. "I am so proud of our students and coaches. The thing that impresses me the most is how so many of our teams are winning. We aren't just relying on one or two teams for all of our district points. Every team is competitive."

He said that the students who compete in UIL have truly become a team over the past few years and this contributes to their success.

"Our students have that feeling of 'team' and that is a testament to our coaches' enthusiasm," he said.

Journalism coach Pam Miller said that the students on her team are what make the whole experience worthwhile.

"This is the fourth year in a row my journalism team has won first place at district," Miller said. "The feeling of satisfaction I get when seeing the joy on a student's face after winning a medal is what makes teaching important to me."

Principal Anthony Black attributes this win to all of the dedication and hard work put in by both the students and coaches.

"Our UIL team as a whole has made some dramatic gains over the past several years," Black said. "John Keeling has been a great leader in promoting UIL academics, and the coaches and students have all stepped up their efforts to build a team that is the envy of the East Texas area. I'm very proud of the accomplishments of these students and teachers. We have lots of talent here at Whitehouse and this is a great way to show it off."

UIL coaches are: John Keeling, Current Issues and Events, Social Studies; Allen Warren, Computer Science; Leah Stanley, Computer Applications; Pam Miller, Journalism (News Writing, Feature Writing, Editorial Writing and Headline Writing); Patti Roberts, Science; Tanye Byrd, Calculator; Staci Mayo, Number Sense; Susan Dobson, Math; Jean Smith, Ready Writing and Literary Critcism; Melissa Danforth, Prose and Poetry Interpretation; and Noah Conklin, Debate and Speech.

District winners are:

Informative Speaking - 2nd Brenna Middleton, 6th Rachel Cook

Persuasive Speaking - 2nd Kenda Bilberry

L-D Debate - 4th Sarah Peymon

Journalism - first place team

Feature Writing - first Caitlin Giddens, second Sarah Stewart, third Meredith Mohr

Editorial Writing - second Caitlin Bartle, fourth Alyssa Bennington, fifth Brittni Barnett

Headline Writing - third Caitlin Bar tle, fifth Caitlin Giddens, sixth Brittni Barnett

News Writing - third Caitlin Giddens, fifth Brittni Barnett, sixth Meredith Mohr

Computer Science - first Brian Crawford, second Matt Dostal, third Daniel Herrig, fourth Andrea Crawford

First Place Computer Science Team: Brian Crawford, Matt Dostal, Daniel Herrig and Andrea Crawford

Social Studies - first Britt Martin, second Megan Ballard

First Place Social Studies Team: Britt Martin, Megan Ballard, Payton Fedell and Garret Dostal

Spelling - third Trent Chudej, fourth Kathleen Carpio, fifth Cody Faist, sixth Autumn Kitchens

First Place Spelling Team: Trent Chudej, Kathleen Carpio, Cody Faist and Autumn Kitchens

Poetry - first Drew Lollar, fifth Josh Byrd

Calculator Applications - sixth Heath Mayo, sixth Trent Chudej

Second Place Calculator Team: Heath Mayo, Trent Chudej, Daniel Herrig and Katelyn Parsons

Math - first Brian Crawford

Second Place Math Team: Brian Crawford, Daniel Herrig, Trent Chudej and Nick Kunzman

Computer Applications - first JJ Massey, third Kenda Bilberry

Science - first Brian Crawford

Physics - first Brian Crawford

Second Place Science Team: Brian Crawford, Heath Mayo, Britt Martin, Kevin Kapka, Wes Holt and Garret Dostal

Ready Writing - fourth Sarah Stewart

Students who placed first, second or third individually and first place teams advanced to region UIL competition on April 13-14 at the University of Texas at Denton. In that competition, Whitehouse was the runner-up academic champion.