Viator Voice Journalists on Deadline — at State

Breaking news: three students on the staff of the student newspaper, the Viator Voice, and another on the Viatome Yearbook staff advanced to the state finals of the IHSA journalism competition, that takes place Friday on the campus of Heartland Community College in downstate Normal.

State bound journalists include: 
  • Grace Kelly, sectional champion in review writing and headline writing
  • Anthony Pretto, first place at sectionals in sports writing 
  • Grace Stauder, second place in copy editing
  • Gianna Scarsella, third place in yearbook layout
In all, the team from the Viator Voice and Viatome combined to take fourth place at sectionals, which took place April 1. Individual students who placed in the top three in their events qualified for state.

“It was a 13-school competition in which we were the only Catholic school and the smallest,” said Mr. Chris Paolelli, English Department chair and newspaper advisor. “Our fearless gladiators stepped up and stunned the competition, placing in nearly every event in which we competed.”

The sectional team included these staffers: 
  • Jos Mendez, 6th place in Photo Storytelling
  • Lisa Hu & Carmela Martinez, 4th place in Yearbook Theme Development
  • Anthony Pretto, 6th place in News Writing
  • Ben Konopka, 5th place in Newspaper Design and 6th place in Feature Writing
  • Fernanda Romero, 6th place in Yearbook Caption Writing and 4th place in Editorial Writing
  • Evelyn Urbaniak, 6th place in Yearbook Copy Writing
The IHSA has offered a statewide journalism competition since 2006, partnering with the Illinois Journalism Education Association, which heartily endorses the series.

“What makes this tournament so exciting is that the students do all of their work onsite under deadline pressure. They’re on their own with no one to lean on. It’s a true test of journalistic ability,” says officials with the IJEA. “Students generally have just 90 minutes to complete their specific tasks, and then judges assess their work.”

Anthony Pretto is the Editor in Chief of this year’s Viator Voice and while overseeing the section editors and directing overall content, he also gets to do some writing. Mostly, he enjoys writing about events at school that have real-world implications, but at sectionals, he competed in news writing and sports writing.

In the sports writing category students are given a prompt, or an assignment, to craft a story about an actual game. At sectionals, it was covering last year’s boys’ state championship baseball game. At state, he will be writing about the girls’ state championship lacrosse game.

As part of their prompt, each student receives everything from the box scores and how each goal was scored, to quotes from players and coaches, or about eight pages in all of the game notes.

“At sectionals, I really pored over the box score to come up with my lead,” Anthony says. “I figured that’s how I could differentiate myself and stand out. Then I go into the who, what, where and when, and recap the game.”

He knows that at the state competition he and his classmates will be going up against talented writers and graphic designers, but he expects everyone to stick to their game.

“We have real quality writers on our staff,” Anthony says, “and Mr Paolelli sets the bar high. He teaches us up and always stresses finding a good lead and drawing the readers into the story.”


Back
Located in Arlington Heights, IL, Saint Viator High School is a private, co-ed, Catholic school for grades 9-12. Students benefit from a challenging academic program, fine and performing arts, competitive athletics, and a wide selection of extracurricular activities.