Archbishop Riordan High School’s The Crusader newspaper won seven awards in the California News Publishers Association statewide contest, including Third Place for General Excellence in print and website, and a First Place award for Illustration for Miles Poon. 

This is the second year in a row The Crusader landed in the top three for General Excellence, previously being recognized as a finalist. 

“I’m really proud of everyone. We’ve worked extremely hard all year long and excellence is always something we strive for,” said Editor-in-Chief Steven Rissotto ’20. “I have no doubt that this will continue to be the school’s most successful club in the future.”

Although they are a perennial winner in the annual statewide contest that honors professional, college, and high school newspapers, this is the first time The Crusader has won an award for the website, which is only in its second year of existence. 

The Crusader’s website, managed by Rissotto and Online and Social Media Editor Antonio Maffei ’20, is a fairly new addition to the student newspaper, and includes previously published print stories as well as breaking news, photo galleries, and sports scores. 

Maffei said, “We have been working hard on our website and social media. The Crusader staff has witnessed increasing statistics across all of our social media platforms and our website. I’m truly blessed to have been a part of something special, and thanks to Ms. Sutton and the entire staff for their amazing work in a historic news year.”

In addition to the awards shared by the entire staff, Art Director Miles Poon ’20 won First Place in the Illustration category for his drawing of athletic phenom Kyler Murray, who at the time of publication was trying to decide between the NFL or MLB.  The illustration, featured in a pro/con piece titled “What’s best for Kyler Murray? Football or baseball?,” perfectly captured the essence of the opinion pieces. 

Poon said, “Honestly, I was really surprised to see that I won this award. I’m really happy that I was invited to be a part of this year’s journalism team, that the staff welcomed me, and I have been given the opportunity to even get a shot at something like this. I just want to say thanks to the journalism staff for that!”

Other Individual awards went to Opinion Editor Michael Gray ‘20 for his Profile Story on notable alumni from the 1970s, titled, “Celebrating 70 years of Crusader Brotherhood: The Pathfinders,” and a Third Place for News Photo by Maffei that accompanied his story headlined “Mercury levels in murky Lake Merced increase.”

The Crusader also took home two Sports Game Story awards, including 3rd Place for Sports Editor Cameron Bevan-Abel ‘22, for “Basketball starts season with slam dunk,” and 4th Place for Christian Ramirez Cortes ‘22, for “Riordan cross country runs its way to top 5.”

The staff has not slowed down while the school is closed during the shelter-in-place, producing Special Edition: Coronavirus, on their website with new stories published several times a week and featured on their social media pages including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.