Here comes the judge

I had a wonderful experience serving as a judge for the Illinois High School Association's inaugural Journalism contest this past weekend.

Basically, the students from high schools in the northern part of the state competed at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb in a series of exercises that tested their skills in various disciplines.

I judged newspaper layout and yearbook theme development.

The thing that surprised me the most was the enthusiams -- both school spirit and camaraderie among competitors -- during the awards ceremony afterwards. That auditorium rocked as much as any crowd would have for a high school basketball game.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to serving in the same capacity this weekend for the state finals in Charleston.