The hard work of many aspiring journalists at Coppell High School has always been evident in the news broadcast program, KCBY. This week, however, the efforts of KCBY have been recognized statewide.

On Saturday, at the Lone Star Emmy Awards at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort, KCBY won the Best Newscast Student Production Award for the second year in a row.

“It’s always a joy to be recognized for the work of your students, I know how much work went in to each of those projects and I felt they were very deserving,” KCBY-TV adviser Irma Kennedy said.

The Lone Star Emmy Awards promotes excellence within broadcast journalism and honors outstanding achievements in television produced by students at the college, university and high school levels. This year, KCBY had nine nominations in six categories, winning five.

In addition to Best Newscast, KCBY won awards for Best Light News, Best Fiction Story, Best Non-Fiction Story and Best PSA.

“Winning Best Newscast was probably the biggest thing,” senior Cole Calabro said. “But even the individual segments, when it came down to that, it showed our individual talents and seeing that we all individually are at the top of the state in each category as well.”

Senior John Coffee was in charge of filming and editing the award-winning PSA segment “Fact Checking,” a video encouraging people, especially journalists, to make sure their facts are reputable before sending them out to the public.

“It’s a lot of after-school hours and dedication, long nights editing and writing,” Coffee said. “But it’s all well worth it, especially when you see your work come to fruition at competitions like these.”

In September, KCBY was also nominated for its second National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker, a prestigious award given to student journalist programs. It will find out the results Saturday afternoon at the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas.

Follow Anthony on Twitter @anthonySK2017