At the local UIL meets November 2 and 9, Lindale began the season with multiple students placing in their events. The meets were held in Lindale and Whitehouse.

“I’m excited for this year because we’ve got a couple new projects in the works, and I’m excited to see how that manifests,” academic UIL coordinator Rory McKenzie said. “I think we’ve got a really good shot this year to equal or pass our previous success, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Every Monday after school, the Computer Applications team meets to prepare for their competitions by taking old tests and fixing their mistakes. The team plans to have more practices the closer the district competition in March gets. 

“I am excited about the potential of both of my academic teams this year,” UIL computer contest sponsor Amanda English said. “Our goal is to be the District Champions, but that will not happen without a lot of hard work. They will have to practice and work hard, but I think they will have a strong year. “

The UIL Science team study three areas for the test: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The classes that Walton refers to that are beneficial for the science test are AP Biology, Chem, Physics and Physics two. 

“We’ll do well this year,” UIL Science sponsor Duane Walton said. “I think we have a chance to do better next year though because I have three students who will have all four science classes. It takes a lot of hard work.”

UIL Journalism encompasses five events: Copy Editing, News Writing, Editorial Writing, Feature Writing, and Headline Writing and they practice in one-on-one meetings sifting through judging criteria and paper criticisms rather than whole team practices.  

“I am really excited about this year’s journalism team,” UIL Journalism sponsor Neda Morrow said. “So far they’ve received over eighteen medals in 2 meets and for some of them it is their very first year.

UIL Journalism compete with each other to make the final team that will go to district in the spring. Currently, the group has nine members in the group who compete for three spots in five different events. 

 “I’m also very excited about all the other teams and how well they’re doing I think we have a really good shot at being able to win another academic team championship at the state level,” Morrow said.