Roma high schoolers take second in national broadcasting competition

Roma High School’s Gladiator Television Network Broadcast News Production Team went into the Business Professionals of America National Competition in Anaheim, California, last month with one clear advantage and one clear disadvantage in the bid that ultimately propelled them to a countrywide second place win.

Their disadvantage was that they were short by a member.

Teams mostly had four members; Roma had three.

Their big advantage was that one of them — Noel Guerrero — played video games.

The team of high school journalists had already made it through a regional competition in McAllen and a state competition in Dallas with a prepared piece by the time they got to California.

That segment featured anchor shots, stand-ups and location reporting from Roma Fest and on the national labor shortage, which they illustrated with a local mini-mart.

The national meet in Anaheim threw in a curveball, a surprise piece the team had to film in their hotel in a few hours time — in this case, on E-sports.

“We didn’t really know what we had to make our project about, and when we heard that it was about E-sports we were all a bit confused by it,” Guerrero said. “But I was able to help my team out the most because, well, I spend a lot of my spare time playing video games, so I know a lot more than my teammates about video games and E-sports in general.”

Guerrero guided them through the story, serving as interviewee. He helped record a piece with Amy Huerta Chavez, who primarily served as reporter, and Bruno Garza, who helmed edits.

They were used to it. Every week or two Roma ISD digitally broadcasts a piece the team produces.

“In school, what we usually do, is we actually do the same thing, we do news productions,” Guerrero said. “So having all the skills we learned on a weekly basis, it really assisted us doing the best that we could in this project that they gave to us.”

It worked out pretty good. A second place win nationally, Team Advisor Eunice Ortega said, is big for Roma.

“It’s significant that they were even able to make it to California. We’re from a small, little school,” she said.

Roma has made it to nationals once before, but never to second place — and this was a team new to the competition.

Ortega said this year’s group of juniors proved their worth early on in script writing. They also learned video production, editing and communication skills.

Students often, Ortega says, come in shy and wanting to be behind the camera rather than in front of it, a hesitation that the competition disabuses them from.

“It teaches them how to be when they’re adults, because once they’re adults they’re not going to have somebody to be there and take their phone call for them,” she said. “So these kids, they learn how to communicate on their own. And for any workplace that they’re gonna be in, it teaches them to work in teams, and in groups.”

Ortega says the pressure’s on for a national win; she sounds like she expects it.

Guerrero hedges his bets some. He does, however, do so eloquently, and if he was ever shy about communicating, he’s gotten over that these days.

“We’re definitely planning on going back next year. And hopefully — if maybe possible — getting first place,” Guerrero said.