Equus, yearbook, lit mag earn All-State titles

Cody High School Equus

For the first time in Cody High School history, the staffs of all three student publications, the yearbook, newspaper and literary magazine, all came home with All-State honors.

“I’m proud of how our kids represented the school and the community,” adviser Mr. Vin Cappiello said. “Not only by their journalistic performance but how they conducted themselves at the state convention.”

The awards were given at the two-day state convention Oct. 8-9 in Casper.

Along with the All-State awards the yearbook and newspaper won the Golden Pony award, which is based on points and the People’s Choice award, which other staffs from around the state vote on.

Yearbook Editor-in-Chief senior Eric Theriault said that yearbook winning made him feel justified.

“This is the first state award I’ve ever won and I think it’s the first for a lot of people on the yearbook staff, too,” Theriault said. “It feels really awesome to know that the culmination of your efforts means something.”

Associate Editor of the Equus junior Amanda Golden said she too thought the awards recognized the hard work the staffs put into the publications.

“Winning the feature category after only being in Equus for a semester made me feel accomplished,” Golden said. “It feels great to be part of a winning team.”

The three staffs combined won more than 40 awards at the state convention. Equus won All-State for the sixth year in a row, The Bronc won All-State for the first time since 2008 and the literary magazine, The Mixed Metaphor, won All-State for the second time.

Literary magazine Editor-in-Chief junior Kimberly Holiday, who is also on the Equus staff and won the on-the-spot reporting contest (the seventh consecutive Equus reporter to do so), said “it felt really good winning both the All-State newspaper and literary magazine awards. The staff of all three publications put in a lot of time and energy to make those great. We all worked really hard and it definitely paid off for us at the state convention.”

Cappiello said the convention was not just about the awards.

“The yearbook, literary magazine and newspaper students have bought into our system and their success goes beyond the awards,” Cappiello said. “Studies continue to show how journalism students continue to achieve on very high levels after high school.”

Holiday said the two-day convention was very beneficial.

“State journalism was such a learning experience,” Holiday said. “The workshops taught me a lot and I had a lot of fun attending them with my friends.”