Many members of The Oracle staff have been recognized this year for several award-winning stories.
The PA Press Club hosts a state-wide high school Journalism contest sponsored by the National Federation of Press Women, recognizing high school journalism all around Pennsylvania.
In the Sports category, senior Brady McGuire won first place for his story “A look at the unsung job of a basketball referee“. By winning first place, that story was entered in a national competition and it was awarded 2nd place nationally after competing against entries from more than a dozen other states.
“This was one of my favorite stories that I have written. It felt easy to put this story together because I am constantly around officials with my dad being one,” McGuire said. “I wasn’t expecting all the awards it received, but I was glad that the message was spread to a lot of people.”
In the Environmental category, senior Will Emmons was awarded 2nd place for his story,”Sustainability students continue working in Millvale with new sustainable park“.
Staff members were also awarded three Honorable Mentions from the PA Press Club. The stories that received that distinction were Matt Purucker’s story about former Pennsylvania Governor and current Shaler resident Tom Corbett “Former PA Governor stays rooted in Shaler“, class of 2023 graduates Kamaria Mutadabur and Julia Barbati’s story on Tribune Review reporter Paula Reed Ward, “Pulitzer Prize winning journalist shares her passion for journalism“, and a story about a Bigfoot Festival “The Search for Bigfoot at the Albatwitch Day Festival” by Joey Duty and Will Emmons.
Best of SNO (School Newspapers Online), an organization in which 583 high school and colleges participate, recognizes the best stories published on their site. This school year, nearly 16,000 stories have been submitted and only 14 percent of those stories were recognized as Best of SNO stories, five of which came from The Oracle.
McGuire had two stories selected: the aforementioned basketball referee story as well as his story on Shaler graduate and MLB prospect Bryan Rincon “Chasing the Big League dream: Bryan Rincon’s journey to professional baseball“. Matt Purucker’s story on former NFL and NCAA basketball referee Gene Steratore “Gene Steratore: behind the scenes of life as a referee and TV analyst“, Jack Salego’s story on magician Derek Hughes “Hughes blends comedy, showmanship, magic and personality into a perfect mix” and Joey Duty’s story on Rob King “Sports led Rob King to live in and love Pittsburgh” were also selected as a Best of SNO article.
Additionally, Shaler Area is a member of the Digital Media Arts Consortium (DMAC), a high school media group hosted by Robert Morris University, that hosts an annual spring high school media contest.
The Oracle received an Award of Excellence in each of the four print journalism categories at the annual Spring Festival. McGuire’s referee story, Duty and Emmons’ Bigfoot story, Purucker’s Gene Steratore story and Jack Salego’s opinion piece on school start time “It’s time to start the school day later” were all recognized by DMAC with an Award of Excellence.
One of the judges had this comment on Purucker’s story.
“This well researched, nicely crafted story showed readers NFL games from a perspective ordinarily hidden from them. It’s not only full of details I haven’t seen in any other forum but touches on important points outside of professional sports, such as the demand for officials for youth sports and the need to tap into the talent that now goes unused after athletes exit their competitive careers.”
While the stories won the awards, the advisor of The Oracle points to the writers as the real winners.
“We’ve had a lot of award winning stories, but that’s mainly attributable to our award-winning staff,” Mr. Eric Schott, advisor of The Oracle said. “My crew has done a great job of coming up with ideas, like Will and Joey with the Bigfoot story or Brady with his referee story, and then following through and producing some really good work.”
