Journalistic skill was put to the test as Diamond Bar High School journalists participated at the annual Write-Offs hosted by Schurr High School against seven other high schools. For the 2018 Eastern Los Angeles Write-Offs, DBHS placed third for Novice News Sweepstakes, third in Newspaper Sweepstakes and third for Super Sweepstakes.

“I think our writing is pretty consistent; it’s just a matter from one year to the next [and] judges feeling one way or another for the quality of writing. I always have fairly low expectations, which makes it better when you win,” advisor Doug List said.

The students competed in news, novice news, critical review, newspaper layout, feature, editorial, sports, editorial cartoon, photography and yearbook layout.

Competitors in news, novice news and editorial listened to a mock press conference about safe havens for schools and participated in a question-and-answer session afterwards. Senior Brian Chang was awarded the first place trophy in news writing for the third consecutive year while juniors Catherine Liu and Christina Liu placed seventh and eighth. First time participants sophomores Elizabeth Peng, Grace Lee and Johnny Wang competed in the novice news category where they placed fifth, eighth and 20th, respectively.

“I thought the story I wrote was really bad, so when they were talking about what the story should have been, I got really nervous. I didn’t think I did well,” Chang said.

In the feature section, participants wrote about a videogame designer who developed a game called Pigeon Wings. Junior Cindy Liu placed sixth for feature. In the critical review category, the students listened to information about a poetry book that they later reviewed. Senior Pauline Woodley placed second, and juniors Amy Miyahara and Amelie Lee placed fourth and sixth.

In sports writing, where participants wrote a feature on NFL photographer and Shurr  alumnus Ryan Kang, senior Sophia Kim placed third while senior Ryan Chae placed seventh.

Meanwhile, as other students were busy writing, some students competed in a different style. In photography, junior Samyuktha Vellaiyan placed ninth, in editorial cartoon, senior Megan Lee placed first and in newspaper layout, senior Hannah Lee placed sixth.

In yearbook layout, Jeremy Kim, Meilani Aguila, Megan Ly and Priscilla Franchino placed 10th. The students were given two hours to design a two-page opening spread.

For the next round of competition, DBHS students went to to the Southern California Journalism Education Association’s state write-offs on March 17.