State champs
By Nathan Straus News Reporter

Haley Smith and Eric Orange of the Brownsboro Journalism Team: State champions.

The Brownsboro Journalism Team won it all May 2 at the University Interscholastic League competition at the University of Texas in Austin. Eric Orange and Haley Smith rode home knowing the team had placed first.

Eric Orange placed second in Headline Writing and fifth in Feature Writing, while Smith placed third in Feature Writing. Their combined performances gave Brownsboro more points than any other team.

Patsy Lewis, Brownsboro High School journalism coach and UIL instructor, said the team dominated at the district, regional and state levels.

"That is an awesome achievement," Lewis said. "After teaching and coaching journalism for 35 years, I have had individual state champions, but I have never had a state championship team."

All the hours of practice paid off for Orange and Smith, Lewis added. The two now have quite a few medals, and state medals to top the previous ones.

Kallie Murphy also went to state as an alternate in Headline Writing, but did not get to compete.

Now Orange and Smith are eligible for the Texas Interscholastic League Foundation scholarships, which are worth thousands of dollars.

At the state competition, the Brownsboro team earned almost twice as many points as any other team, despite some other teams even bringing more members to state.

Orange said while at the meet he wasn't nervous until he entered the contest room.

"After I started to write I was fine," Orange said.

The nervousness came back during the awards ceremony, and Orange said he was shaking when his name was called for second place.

Smith said going to the state championship had been a dream of hers.

"Placing State Journalism Team was just icing on the cake," Smith said.

Smith also said all the hard work of the team paid off.

"Making state was great, and making it as a team was even greater," Smith said.