Welcome to The Shield.

The first rule of The Shield is: you do not talk about The Shield.

The second rule of The Shield is: you do not talk about The Shield.

For the remainder of this editorial, I’m going to do just that – talk about The Shield.

If I’m going to count how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “We aren’t the news. We report the news” throughout my two years at this paper, I would need both hands.

Rare is the case when a publication puts itself in its own paper (outside of house ads, of course).

On April 11, however, The Shield was awarded 2^nd place for Division II Newspaper of the Year by the Indiana Collegiate Press Association, and it deserves to be talked about.

Having placed 1^st for this category the last two years in a row, it was a tough pill to swallow when our name was called at the ceremony – especially after hearing the final scores.

The Shield lost the title to Valparaiso University’s paper, The Torch, 44 to 45.

In the Division II category, there are 30 contests ranging from best in-depth story to best sports photo. The publication acquires three points for each first place, two points for each second place and one point for each third place it receives in the contests.

The total points determine who wins Newspaper of the Year.

If just one of our visual editor’s 2^nd place designs was given the 1^st place award, we would have a triplet of plaques hanging in the office.

Reflecting on it now after some time has gone by, it’s all right that The Shield didn’t win.

This was the first time we’ve placed in all three overarching categories in the same year: Division II, Advertising and Online, with the latter two being across all three divisions, not just Division II.

With some Shieldsters clocking in 40+ hours a week in the newsroom, we’re doing the amount of work daily newspapers like Indiana University do with about ¼ of the staff – if that.

I have never been a part of a more hard-working or cohesive staff in my life.

The one point that divided Valparaiso and us doesn’t mean we spent a year not being as good as them – and they are good – or not putting out quality work, it meant we spent a year diversifying our strengths in other areas and laying the groundwork for a better publication – and that deserves to be talked about.

Ricky Bobby said if you ain’t first you’re last.

Well, we weren’t first.

And I couldn’t be any more proud.