Every year DBHS journalists have the chance to face off against journalists from other high schools at a regional write offs. This year, DBHS overall placed third in Newspaper Sweepstakes, fifth in Novice News Sweepstakes, and fifth in Super Sweepstakes.

At the Eastern Los Angeles Journalism Education Association Write Offs, held on Feb. 26 at Bell Gardens High School, DB students were pitted against students from 11 other schools. The DB journalists participated in news writing, novice news writing, editorial, feature, sports, critical review, feature and news photography, and Yearbook layout.

Sophomore Brian Chang took home the first place trophy in news writing while senior Yusheng Xia finished second in editorial.

“I was very shocked to receive first place,” Chang said. “I couldn’t even believe that I won, until the next day.”

Additionally, senior Frances Wu placed sixth in news and junior Bernard Chen placed fifth in editorial. In feature writing, junior Michelle Ki placed ninth and sophomore Catherine Zhang placed tenth. In sports writing, sophomore Emily Kim placed eighth, and in critical review, senior Lilly Ball placed seventh and senior Vrinda Chauhan placed ninth. Junior Calvin Ru placed fourth in Feature photography and the team of seniors Mika Pham, Lesley Dea, and Frances Song, along with junior Claire Medina, placed fifth in Yearbook layout.

For first time participants, the competition featured a novice news writing section, which followed the exact same structure and story as News. Sophomore Pauline Villegas placed 5th, sophomore Ingrid Chan placed 18th, and sophomore Emily Jacobsson placed 19th, while freshman Angela Yang placed 13th.

Participants in news writing, novice news writing, and editorial listened to a 30-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer period. The students then wrote a news or editorial story based on the information.

In contrast to the other sections, participants in photography walked around the school campus and took pictures of anything interesting they could find, later submitting two of their best to the judges.

“Even though we did better last year, we can’t expect to receive better awards every single year,” DBHS journalism teacher Doug List said. “But overall, I was very pleased with our performance.”

In the next round of the write-offs, DB student journalists took home fifth place in Newspaper Sweepstakes and Top 10 finishes for most of the school’s participants. The competition was held on March 13 at Rancho Dominguez Prep in Long Beach, and featured schools from across Southern California and over 270 students.