Penn-Trafford High School student Annabelle Aquino grew up playing sports with her brothers, Joey and AJ, in the sprawling backyard of her family’s Harrison City home.
“My mom always wanted us to go outside,” said Aquino, 17, a junior. “All my neighbors are guys, so we just played sports all the time.”
Pairing her lifelong love of sports with her affinity for writing, Aquino joined in 2023 the staff of Penn-Trafford’s student newspaper, The Warrior, covering a handful of sporting events.
Aquino has taken her sports reporting up a notch this school year, covering home football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, tennis and swim competitions — work that has earned her the title of “High School Sports Journalist of the Year” at Point Park University’s Myron Cope Awards.
Created in partnership with Cope’s family and Point Park’s School of Communication, the Myron Cope Awards were launched in 2024 to recognize high school athletics reporting in Pennsylvania and select Ohio and West Virginia counties.
Student winners each receive a $1,000 scholarship toward Point Park tuition.
Receiving the award March 9, Aquino feels her hard work is starting to pay off.
“I’d be leaving school, coming home for 20 minutes, going out to a swim meet, going right over to the basketball games to cover JV and varsity and then coming home — writing all night and then doing it all over again the next day,” she said.
The fall was a particularly busy season for Aquino, as she and classmate Mia Williams followed Penn-Trafford’s football team to home and away games through an internship with PA Football News. The pair later traveled to Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium to cover the WPIAL championships.
Preparing to enter her senior year, Aquino feels she has found a calling in sports reporting. She plans to tour college journalism programs this summer.
“I wouldn’t keep doing it if it wasn’t fun,” she said, “but I’m having so much fun and that’s what motivates me to keep doing it.”