From 1976-1980, the staff of the school paper, then called the Inkspot, produced articles by printing copies of the paper instead of making it on newsprint. In 1980, editor-in-chief, Jim Anderson created the first print issue of the paper for the journalism class.
“I went to Roger Bass and some of the other teachers, and rallied for them to give us a budget so we could actually print it, which they surprisingly agreed to because it was not all that cheap to do that,” Anderson said.
At the end of the year, Anderson had a surplus budget. He had to spend all of the money to receive the same amount the following year.
“We decided to have a newspaper outing to explore the neighborhood for stories of interest. So we rented limos, and all went out to lunch and just had the limo drive around the neighborhood,” Anderson said. “And we took pictures out the window and wrote articles.”
As EIC, Anderson created an Editor’s Award. Anderson would give an award to the most outstanding journalist of the year. He created the award to recognize the work of a student “who showed commitment to writing, research and creativity.” He displayed the award in the library.
“I think our librarian at the time thought it was silly and it kept disappearing,” Anderson said. “He’s like ‘you guys can’t give each other awards.’ But we have a trophy and a plaque right here. What more do you want?”
Anderson changed the name of the paper from the Inkspot to the University Pres in 1980.
“The Inskpot seemed like it was more of a name for a poetry book,” Anderson said.
The name of the paper changed to the Prep Press in 1982. In 1985, Pat Grant became the faculty adviser. Grant stated that he ended his time as adviser after 8-10 years. He went on teach other classes at UPrep until his retirement in 2025.
Grant explained how articles were printed.
“We didn’t have computers when I first started, so we wrote them and then sent them down to a publisher. Then, what they did is they put them into an article format,” Grant said.
When the articles were ready to be arranged, they were sent to a typesetter, someone who arranged the layout.
“Then we would take that back, and then we would cut them out and scroll them into a layout by hand,” Grant said. “So they would be sticked up and stuck on. In the old days when we were doing the paste-up with the rollers and print and sticking it on, it took us till 3 a.m. ” I drove the layouts down to the printer at 3:30 in the morning and woke up the next morning to teach the next day.”
Alec Duxbury acted as editor-in-chief from 1985-1986, while Grant was the adviser. While now becoming EIC requires submitting an application and an interview, Duxbury stated that he became editor by being the only one in the class that did not object to it.
“I remember, being editor kind of fell to me. It wasn’t like I was super into being a journalist, or journalism, or anything like that. It just happened,” Duxbury said.
Alec Duxbury assisted in printing the paper.
“The guy who was in charge of our account, his first name was Ed and his last name was Mund,” Duxbury said. “His name was Ed Mund.”
Through Grant’s time as adviser, the Prep Press transitioned to use computers. They used PageMaker, a software tool that allowed the design of the paper to be carried out electronically.
“By the time I finished, we were all computerized,” Grant said.
In 2002 Dan Perreten became the adviser of the school paper and changed its name to The Puma Press.
To Perreten the name Prep Press sounded awkward.
“With the two ees we had to change it,” Perreten said.
Under Perreten’s tenure as adviser, the paper won the National Scholastic Press Pacemaker Award, the highest award for high school journalism four times.
“I wanted students to write about what they were passionate about,” Perreten said.
In 2016 Mahir Piyarali became EIC. Piyarali had to drive to Sodo to pick up the paper from the printer, often at 10 p.m.
“My mom’s like, why the hell are you going down there? I’m like, ‘Don’t worry Mom, just picking up the paper. It sounded kind of sus, “Piyarali said.
In producing the paper, Piyarali struggled to think of headline ideas. So he and his co-editor would stand on a table until they were able to think of a headline idea.
“That was always fun,” Piyarali said.
In 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, Olivia Poolos was editor-in-chief of the paper.
“Scott [the adviser] had this idea that we should still put out the paper,” Poolos said.
To create the paper, albeit online, the staff conducted interviews over Zoom and complete drafts online, according to Poolos. They would drive to school late at night to gain access to the school’s wifi and connect to the server to be able to access tools to produce the paper.
“Late at night, like 8 p.m. we would be sitting in our cars in the school parking lot trying to get this paper out. So there are definitely some memorable moments from that,” Poolos said.
Piyarali viewed the school paper as a unique experience.
“It’s one of the few opportunities, I think, for students to really run something,” Piyarali said.
