Juan Diego students win at statewide competitions

Friday, Jun. 05, 2020

DRAPER —While the Juan Diego Catholic High School campus has been largely shuttered over the last couple of months as classes moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic, student journalists and athletes nevertheless earned statewide recognition. In addition, junior Anthony Tibolla took a top placement at the Utah High School Musical Theatre Awards.

Journalism advisor Joe Elliott and his 14 newspaper students were cheered recently by winning several awards in the Utah Futures Awards contest.

Normally, the awards would be presented at an in-person ceremony at Weber State University, but this year contest officials sent a prerecorded presentation to participating schools. Elliott and his staff watched the video May 13.

The Juan Diego news staff walked away with seven awards, including Best Illustration, Best Online Newspaper and a first place in headline writing in the Utah Futures Awards sponsored by the Utah College Media Alliance in collaboration with the Utah Press Association. Other wins for the Soaring Eagle journalists included two second-place awards in staff headlines and headline writing, and third place in both sports photography and video production.

This school year, the 14  students published four quarterly 32-page print issues of their news magazine “99;” the fourth was produced completely online after the COVID-19 shutdown. They also produced Speakingeagle.com, an online-only newspaper.

“It is entirely student-run,” Elliott said. “I don’t write anything for it; I don’t edit anything. It’s the kids who are doing the work there.”

Overall, Juan Diego took third place in the 4A/5A/6A classification.

“This is our best finish ever at Futures,” Elliott said. “It was a big morale-booster for the kids going into the summer, thinking about next year.”

When the school campus was shut down and instruction was continued online, the students were preparing to distribute their third print issue. Now, Elliott hopes to distribute those magazines in September. 

“I’m really proud of the kids; this was all their work,” he said. “I let them create as they want, write about the things they care about. I’m glad they got some recognition and their hard work this year paid off.”

In theater, Anthony Tibolla was named Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Reverend Shaw in “Footloose” in the Utah High School Musical Theatre Awards. Tibolla also received a $500 scholarship from The Council for Investment in Education, a $750 scholarship from The Broadway at the Eccles Education Fund and a CS Music sponsorship. 

The awards were livestreamed May 16 on YouTube.

In athletics, several Juan Diego athletes were named to the Utah High School Activities Association first team academic all-state team. They are Chloe Redican, lacrosse; Annelise Sokolow, softball; Dylan Strydom, soccer; Fabiola Sosa, softball; Ishan Dhawan, soccer; Kristine Deffner, track; Kunyu Li, tennis; Matthew Hudson, track; Matthew Perkins, lacrosse; Tyler Young, soccer and William Anderson, lacrosse.

On April 27, the school received its own recognition when it was named Best of State 2020 for private schools K-12 for the third year in a row. Head basketball coach Drew Trost was named Best High School Coach in the state and the Juan Diego Catholic High School senior service project was recognized as Best Special Interest Education Program. An awards ceremony is tentatively planned for July 15.