Sulphur Springs High School UIL Sweepstakes State Champions 2023

Sulphur Springs High School UIL Sweepstakes State Champions 2023

Medalists – UIL State Academic Meet 2023

UIL FILM (Coaches – Phillip Dick, Jordan Owens)

Traditional Animation

Alexis Villarino – State Champion (Animation) Narrative Nathan Bilyeau – 6th Place (Narrative)

ESSAYS (Coach – Gail Herman)

Barbara Jordan Historical Essay

Lexi McCoy – State Champion

Jaya Smith – 2nd Place Latino History Essay Alexis Villarino – State Champion Camilla Hidalgo – 3rd Place

JOURNALISM (Coaches – Madison Millsap, Gail Herman

News Writing

Lexi McCoy – 3rd Place

Feature Writing Payton Hooks – State Champion

Editorial Writing-

Asia Chen – 4th Place

Headline Writing Lausen Ost – State Champion*

Abigail Bautista – 5th Place

Copy Editing

Lexi McCoy – 2nd Place

Journalism Team – State Champion Abigail Bautista, Asia Chen, Payton Hooks, Lexi McCoy, and Lausen Ost

SPELLING & VOCABULARY (Coach – Gail Herman)

Spelling Team – 2nd Place

Abigail Bautista, Kami White, Celeste Hernandez,

and Allyssa Isonhood

READY WRITING (Coach – Gail Herman)

Alexis Villarino – State Champion

SOCIAL STUDIES (Coach – Madison Millsap)

Alfredo Renteria – 6th Place

LITERARY CRITICISM (Coach – Gail Herman)

Alexis Villarino – 2nd Place

Alan Tellez – 4th Place

Kami White – 5th Place Literary Criticism Team – State Champions Alexis Villarino, Alan Tellez, Kami White, and Betzy Chacon

*TOPS – Best Score in All Conferences

STATE Qualifiers & Coaches 2023:

Students: Abigail Bautista, Nathan Bilyeau, Betzy Chacon, Artesia Cheak, Asia Chen, Austin Crump, Craig Draper, Celeste Hernandez, Camila Hidalgo, Payton Hooks, Alyssa Isonhood, Crawford Johnson, Jessi Li, Alexis McCoy, Lausen Ost, Alfredo Renteria, Jaya Smith, Alan Tellez, Jordan VanWinkle, Alexis Villarino, Kami White, Addisyn Wall, Aiden Woodard

Coaches: Philip Dick, Gerald Grafton, Gail Herman, Madison Millsap, Jordan Owens, Lesha Woodard

Gerald Grafton: I am so proud of the way our competitors and coaches have represented Sulphur Springs this year. We had 24 students qualify and compete at the state level in UIL Academics throughout the year. SSHS had 5 state champion individuals and 2 state champion teams. In all our students earned 17 individual medals. Each of our competitors and coach invested quality time and effort in a very competitive setting. We salute all our 2023 state qualifiers and we say congratulations to all our state medalists. We are proud of you all.

Thanks again to all the administration and staff of SSHS and SSISD for your support of our team. You set the atmosphere that allows students to succeed.

Contributed by Mikki Daniel & Angela Grimes. Photo courtesy SSISD