With the first week of the second semester under our belt, the staff  looks significantly different than it did just a few moments ago back in 2019. The turn of the decade signaled a call for a clean house as the Purple Quill welcomes eight new fine journalists.

Starting off with the senior returnees from a year ago we have, Robby Engelhardt and Jake Byrne.

Standing at a towering 6′-3″, Engelhardt will be looking to make a push for one of the top spots this semester. Last year, Rob produced a lot of great content, most notably his 1987 Elder vs. Toledo Central Catholic basketball article. With a year under his belt, Rob is one of the vets and knows how the ship sails here in room S131. It’s great to have the old engler back and I expect nothing less than some great content from him.

Just a tad shorter, coming in at 5′-10″ is second year staff member, Jake Byrne. There’s never a dull moment with this man in the room. I’d expect a lot of Nintendo and articles about the different seasons from Jake this semester. He has a lot of hot takes including his article he’s currently writing about the underground tunnel that connects Elder and Seton… stay tuned.

First year member, Mike Connolly, will be looking to share his writing talents with the school this year. Mike is probably one of the most academically inclined members on the staff now, so I expect his AP level knowledge to bode well for his writing. Also, Mike is hoping for a big first interview with WLWT’S very own, Allison Rogers on his first print article.

Next we have Senior, Dakota Postel. Dakota’s a great guy to have on the staff and should bring some interesting topics to the paper. He’s usually hard at work watching war movie trailers in class, studying up on his film, so I’d expect a few movie reviews from him no doubt.

The next senior joining us for the first time is Nick Hunter. I have personally never seen Nick’s writing in action, but I’d expect big things from him this semester. He definitely will be a great addition and a great guy to have around.

To wrap up the seniors, we have Jason Thomas. Jason is one of

the most talented art students in the school if not the most talented, so we are excited to have a graphics guy that will be able to help with editing in Photoshop and design for the paper as well as share his writing. With Thomas and Langen on the staff, I think you’ll get to see some quality graphics this semester.

We also have two new Juniors who will be looking to share their journalistic talent. Henry Mazza and Gus Middendorf look to carry on the tradition their brothers laid just years ago as staff members. I expect a good amount of quality writing from these guys as they already know what to expect coming in.

I quote Mr. Rogers as he just announced to the class: “I didn’t have as many grammar corections with our first online submissions, so I have high expectation for you guys this semester.”

Although short in number, the boys are looking to finish the year off strong with some suburb writing for the viewers.

Stay tuned…