Lindale High School students competed in the University Interscholastic League District competition April 5 on the LHS campus. Numerous students from Lindale  will now move on to the regional level on April 22-23 in Nacogdoches at Stephen F. Austin University.

“U.I.L. district is like the culmination of the year,” speech and debate coach Rory McKenzie said. “It starts the process, so when you do well at District it means you were doing well all year long. It’s like the validation that you were doing the right stuff.”

LHS students competed in 23 U.I.L. events at this year’s District competition. Competitors in these events can be freshman, sophomores, juniors or seniors. LHS junior Skylore Evans competed in U.I.L. Computer Apps and earned a 3rd place medal at district.

“It felt really great to place because we had practiced a lot, so all of that hard work paid off,” Evans said. “Computer Applications is a lot of Microsoft Word, Access, and Excel. The thing I like most about it is that it’s very practical, because a lot of businesses use those programs to transcribe information.”

Competitors spend a lot of time practicing with their teams and attending weekend practice meets to prepare.  Often the topics cross over with their regular studies and allow for a deeper level of learning.  

“U.I.L. has impacted me in a very positive way,” senior Aaron Cortinas said. I would definitely recommend that other students compete in U.I.L. in younger grades, and even if you are a junior or a senior. There’s a wide variety of events that you can compete in that cover every basis of interest.”