Making it to the playoffs, eventually winning state, and receiving that glorious state ring. Each sports team often sets this goal, and teams like girls cross country, track, Golden Girls, boys soccer, wrestling, and baseball have accomplished this. This goal is one that most students are aware of. While not an event that can be rallied and cheered on, the yearbook staff strives all year for, not a ring, but a plaque congratulating them on an All-American yearbook. The All-American is an award and a validation to a program’s yearbook telling students the book met the tough standards required to be called, in loose terms, an all-around great book.

“I judge books. We know what a good book looks like; good stories, great photos. We focus on what is enjoyable and entertaining for the students. We go with what the staff wants to do, but I make sure the book lives up to the standard of an All-American,” FHHS Publication adviser Michele Dunaway said.

With eight All-Americans under their belt and one more on the way, this yearbook staff has the pressure of making the 10th yearbook to receive an All-American in 11 years. This would place the FHHS Publications in the National Scholastic Press Association Hall of Fame. Which is no small feat.

“Getting in the hall of fame is extremely rare. Only seven yearbook’s in Missouri have ever been inducted and the last one was in 2006,” Dunaway said.

Just as the quarterback rallies his teammates, the yearbook editors are in charge of keeping the yearbook staff on track.

“As editors we have to not only design the yearbook, but also simultaneously monitor and manage the staff to make sure they are creating at the best of their ability,” senior Brooke Watkins said. “It’s horrifying to know that our possible induction into the yearbook hall of fame rests on this year’s staff. If we lose it this year, we not only let down the current staff, but also all the old staff members that contributed to our current number of All-Americans.”

The editors share more responsibility than most would assume. Even though a team has a coach that feeds them the knowledge and training they need to succeed, it is still up to the team to take the win. The editors are the ones who keep it all together. They design the book cover to cover, and without them, there would be no yearbook.

“All the responsibility is left on them. I am just the keeper of the standard. All the ideas and content are up to them to create. If I don’t like something I’ll say just that, but first they have to create it,” Dunaway said.

Just like a sport, the editors and staff put a lot of time into the publications every week.

“Along with working on the yearbook everyday during class, the staff and the editors spend a lot of time outside of class. From working on pages after school, to working during other periods, to coming in after school on certain days, the yearbook requires a lot of work and effort on everyone’s part,” editor Shelby Odle said. “In a week I probably spend sixteen to seventeen hours a week on the yearbook. Once or twice a month we also have what is called a ‘Late Night’, which adds somewhere around eight hours of extra work after school on the Friday night before our next deadline.”