Heading into the 2022-2023 school year, Steinbrenner’s newspaper, Oracle News, has a revamped staff, website, and advisor, but most of all the editors that keep things running smoothly. In the past, the Oracle has had some rocky years, but this year we’re coming to you with the information and stories the students will be most excited for.  

This year we have seven editors for each section of the newspaper and getting to know each of them is vital to creating a community within the school and the Oracle.  

Seeing as this is a newspaper, we need to provide the news of Steinbrenner. Senior Ava Combs is the news editor and aids in copy-editing. She is always on top of her game, ready to give out the latest on what’s going on at school. Combs has been a part of the paper since her sophomore year, and as a freshman she interned for the Oracle.  

“I was going around taking photos, I [also] did mock interviews where I would interview other editors, and I produced articles for them,” said Combs.  

Commiting to a publishing school paper is a major commitment for anyone, and Combs decided to join the Oracle when she was at JA BizTown in fifth grade and was assigned the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tampa Bay Times. Outside of school Combs plays volleyball, hangs out with friends, and works at Earthbound in Citrus Park Mall. 

Being a senior, Combs has given a lot of thought to her college plans and wants to attend Florida State University (FSU) and study Pre-law. 

One of the struggles transitioning this year was creating an entirely brand-new website, however you have senior Olivia Pages to thank for getting it done! Pages takes charge of our website, Instagram, and helps to copy-edit as well. Pages has been apart of the paper for two years but previously tried yearbook in middle school. 

“I’ve been in journalism classes for a very long time, and I tried yearbook but I didn’t like how we had set deadlines for getting pages done and [it] was more work by yourself. I wanted something that was more [of a] team setting and more writing,” said Pages.  

Pages takes much pride in her work and spends her free time making the website the best it can be. She also loves fashion, skin care, reading, and graphic design. Pages is graduating a year early and plans to go to the University of Florida (UF), University of Miami (UM), or University of South Florida (USF) to study Bio-Medical Sciences.  

Coming into this school year we also began broadcast news, which is taking stories from each cycle and creating a video story to go with it. Senior Zachary Babajanof, decided to take on the new role of Broadcast editor and helps with copy-editing in addition to his responsibilities.  

After hours, Babajanof works at Publix as a cashier and dances at Karl and DiMarco North. He began his journalism journey in yearbook, much like Pages, but changed course to newspaper when he was a junior. 

“This is my second year apart of newspaper. I chose to take newspaper because when I was in yearbook it really wasn’t the kind of journalism I liked… so I wanted to expand on my journalism and take newspaper, so then I could get more of the journalism I like to write,” said Babajanof.  

After graduation, Babajanof plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin, and study journalism to eventually earn a master’s degree and specialize in sports journalism. 

Another returning editor is junior Megan Menendez who edits the Arts and Entertainment (A&E) articles. Her story is unique compared to the other editors seeing as she’s a legacy student in the journalism program, since both of Menendez’s brothers were a part of the Oracle, and she knew our previous advisor, Kristen Crosby.  

When not at school, Menendez likes to read, hang out with friends, and has a job at Chicken Salad Chick. Menendez is only a junior but has still given some thought to what she would like to do when she graduates. 

“I want to go to University of Central Florida (UCF), or Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and I want to be a pharmacy technician,” said Menendez. 

Steinbrenner High School has many sports teams ranging from football to wrestling, and coverage on sports and their statistics is always vital to our newspaper so junior Lorelei Woodward, runs our Sports section. Woodward has been a student in the journalism program since freshman year, taking journalism one her first year at Steinbrenner and being in the Oracle since completing the prerequisite. 

Woodward is also a member of the Future Farmer of America (FFA) at school as well and is a receptionist at a physical therapy office. However, she has many things she enjoys doing outside of school and work. 

“I ride horses, read, I’m kinda all over the place on my hobbies,” said Woodward.  

When graduation rolls around the corner, Woodward’s goal is to attend UF but she’s not set on a certain college, and her future career goals are also up in the air currently. 

Those ideals are strikingly similar to our opinion editor, Olivia Montgomery. This is Mongomery’s second year writing for the Oracle and first year being an editor, and much like Woodward, she has not set a goal for college yet but has a list of top colleges she would want to attend which are UF, UCF, and FSU. She also has no idea what career she would want to pursue, but is interested in forensic science, to be a crime scene investigator.  

Surprisingly, Montgomery got her motivation to join the newspaper from our current advisor John Vona.  

“When I was a freshman, I had creative writing and towards the application deadline for the paper, Vona told me that he thought I would be a good fit in the Oracle. So, the Editor in Chief at the time, Taylor, came up to me during class and gave me application to fill out, so I applied,” said Montgomery. 

During her after hours, Montgomery enjoys reading, hanging out with friends, and dancing at Karl and DiMarco North. 

Last but certainly not least, also new to being an editor is sophomore Saule Kondra who oversees the People of Steinbrenner section which highlights the school’s students and their talents or interests. This is Kondra’s second year writing for the Oracle but she’s taken journalism classes since middle school. She also takes part in many after-school activities. 

“I volunteer at a goat farm with 40 goats, and I like to play guitar and play lacrosse,” said Kondra.  

Kondra hasn’t brainstormed college ideas yet but would possibly want to attend Eckard College and study biology.  

Steinbrenner’s 2022-2023 editors are very excited to get out there and provide the students with the stories they want to hear, and they have many new and exciting projects and articles coming this year, so keep an eye out for those!