The annual contest recognizes high school and collegiate-level journalism that provides relevance, integrity and initiative in serving readers, according to the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s website, where winners were announced last week.

Bellwood-Antis High School’s newspaper, The BA BluePrint, received five awards; Altoona Area School District’s Mountain Lion Television broadcast received four awards; and Tyrone Area School District’s newspaper, The Eagle Eye News, received three awards.

At Bellwood-Antis, senior Riley Barnhart won an honorable mention in the general news category for her article, “Unfounded threats made to schools.”

Recent graduate Zach Pier won an honorable mention in the sports story category for his article, “Priced out of playing.”

Bellwood-Antis senior Riley Barnhart works a camera as the “4th and 3” podcast is being filmed. Barnhart also received an honorable mention in the general news category for her article, “Unfounded threats made to schools.” Mirror photo by Matt Churella

The contest’s rules dictate that any student at any public, private or parochial Pennsylvania high school, college or university who had his or her material published in the school news publication in 2024 could enter the contest.

Recent graduate Kevin Liang won a first place award for his video story, “Bellwood’s greatest athletes.”

Barnhart and fellow students Matt Berkowitz, Cayden Pellegrine, Cameron Gallagher and Janiyah Jackson won a first place award in the website category. The award names The BA BluePrint’s website as the top high school news website in Pennsylvania — an honor the website also received in 2017 and 2018, adviser Kerry Naylor said.

Berkowitz, Pellegrine and fellow students Jake Baker and Zachary Gonzales won a second place award for their “4th and 3” podcast, which covers school events, sports topics and food reviews.

“A lot of hard work goes into it,” Gonzales said of the podcast. “The award means a lot.”

Altoona Area seniors Ava Steinbugl and Dom Zlupko talk on the set of the award-winning Mountain Lion Television morning show on Friday. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

“We just enjoy talking about what we normally do and people just kind of find it entertaining,” Berkowitz said.

Hanging on the inside of Naylor’s classroom are plaques and certificates former Bellwood-Antis students have won throughout the years.

Naylor said it’s important for students to be proud of their work and to know that they can continue the “standard of excellence” at Bellwood-Antis, despite being a smaller school district with fewer financial resources than their peers in the competition.

“I think it’s amazing what our kids can produce, and I’m proud of them because nobody ever comes into the class as a journalist,” Naylor said, noting scheduling conflicts prevent some students from being involved with the paper for multiple years in a row.

Because the awards are judged by different unbiased professionals each year, Naylor said winning awards can’t necessarily be a goal for his students. But they always strive to be among the best school news websites in Pennsylvania, he said.

Tyrone Area junior Anna Myers shows off her award-winning photograph of senior quarterback Ashton Walk going airborne as he hurdles over a Bishop Guilfoyle lineman during a game. The photograph earned Myers a second place Student Keystone Media Award this year. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

“It doesn’t matter if we have 15 kids in the class and there’s some other school that has like three sections with 30 kids in each class,” Naylor said. “We have enough talent here that we can put out an excellent product, so that’s what we always try to do.”

Altoona Area

Altoona Area students Adilee Scott, Dominick Zlupko, Ava Steinbugl, Keldon Holland, Mark Harrington and Carmine Polito won a first place award in the best newscast category for Mountain Lion Television’s Nov. 18, 2024, morning show.

Scott, along with classmates Aiden Aiken and Sydney Wilber, won a first place award in the best sports coverage in broadcast journalism for Mountain Lion Television’s highlights of the 2024 Turkey Bowl, an annual flag football fundraiser that raises money for the junior-senior prom.

Zlupko, Steinbugl and classmates Korbyn Clifford, Luke Mitchell, Cameron Sicola and Lanie Wilt received a second place award in the best public service of broadcast journalism category for reporting the high school’s cyber safety week public service announcements.

Kihlee Noel, Jaxson Pellegrine and Jordan Auker received an honorable mention in the best feature of broadcast journalism category for their coverage of Rachel’s Closet and the district’s Friends of Rachel club.

Rachel’s Closet is a student-run thrift store in high school room B215 that offers clothing, school supplies and personal hygiene items to students for free. It’s named after Rachel Scott, the first student killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Mountain Lion Television coordinator Mike Baker said several students take advantage of the program, so his students felt it was important to “get the word out” about it.

The cyber safety public service announcements were something district officials asked the students to do, Baker said.

“We have students who sometimes don’t understand the risks of being online, so that was the impetus to do that,” he said, adding the students “took it and ran with it.”

Zlupko said the Mountain Lion Television staff had many students recording, editing and producing the announcements.

“All of this would not be done without a group effort. The thing that I’m really proud of is how much we are all able to work together,” Zlupko said.

Steinbugl agreed, noting the students’ responsibilities on the show change every day. “So, everybody needs to know what they’re doing at all times,” she said.

Being part of Mountain Lion Television’s morning show has been a dream of Steinbugl’s since her freshman year. Now seniors fewer than three months shy of graduation, both Zlupko and Steinbugl said Baker’s broadcasting class is their favorite course at Altoona Area High School.

“I’m definitely proud of us,” Steinbugl said. “We’re always working hard every single day.”

Baker said his students winning statewide awards is a reflection of their “creative abilities.”

“We’re very fortunate that the school district has supported this program,” Baker said, noting the Mountain Lion Television production is in its 25th year.

“I always tell the students that we do not go without,” Baker said. “We have pretty much everything we need to do a professional-level broadcast, from filming footage to editing it and getting it on the air. We can do it all.”

Tyrone Area

At the Tyrone Area High School, junior Anna Myers won two second place awards for her photographs during her first year with The Eagle Eye News.

Myers’ photograph of the Tyrone Area High School marching band performing won an award in the feature photo category. A photo she captured of senior quarterback Ashton Walk going airborne as he hurdles over a Bishop Guilfoyle lineman to make one of the tie-breaking touchdowns of that game won her an award in the sports photo category.

“If no one knows about the rivalry between Tyrone and BG, it’s a really big deal,” Myers said, adding her teacher, Todd Cammarata, advised her to be facing Tyrone’s football players as the game progressed to get the best photographs.

Recent graduate Bree Paul won a first place award for a personality profile she wrote titled, “From struggle to strength: Lena Walk’s triumph over adversity.”

Cammarata said he’s really proud of what his students have accomplished.

He said The Eagle Eye News fills a need in the community about the school and its sports teams that isn’t being fulfilled on a daily basis.

“I’m just happy that people read what we do,” Cammarata said, noting he wants his students to understand their work is for more than just an academic pursuit.

“We have an audience here. We’re providing a service to the community, and we’re doing something that matters,” he said.

Tyrone Area Superintendent Leslie Estep said district officials are proud to have The Eagle Eye News and its staff, who are “writing some really good pieces.”

“We’re proud of them because every year we’re seeing that somebody wins something,” Estep said, adding the student newspaper provides “good exposure” for students, which will help them as they move on from high school, she said.

Speaking of Myers, Cammarata said, “She has a natural eye for photography, and I think it shows with her pictures. Even though she doesn’t have a lot of experience, it was obvious after the first game that she knew what she was doing. She’s done a great job.”

According to Cammarata, Myers also won a district photography award for the Pennsylvania School Press Association. For that, she will advance to a state competition April 1, he said.

Student Keystone Media Award winners will be honored during a luncheon April 3 at WITF’s Public Media Center in Harrisburg.

The event includes “ask-me-anything” sessions with professional journalists, tours of WITF’s facilities for students and a networking lunch. The awards presentation will follow.

Plaques will be provided to all first place winners and certificates to all second place and honorable mention winners in attendance at the awards luncheon.

Any certificates not distributed at the event will be mailed by mid-April, according to the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s website.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.