About Us

The Rider Online is a daily updated publication from students at Mansfield Legacy High School. Legacy High School opened in 2007 as Mansfield ISD’s fourth high school. We’re located on the former Kowbell rodeo arena near downtown Mansfield, Texas- just south of Arlington. We currently have 2,550 students. therideronline.com has earned top ratings from UIL and won Crown Awards from CSPA and Pacemakers from NSPA. During the last fifteen years, The Rider has been nominated for a Star Award from the Interscholastic League Press Conference. Legacy High School won the district UIL team points for UIL’s four journalism writing events in 2008-2014, 2017-2020. Our goal and number one mission is to tell the stories within Legacy High School and give information to our students, parents, community and whoever else cares.

therideronline.com became real in 2009 after a year of studies, tests and many failures!

With the teamwork of journalism adviser Leland Mallett, broadcast teacher Jim Cockrell, former Southwest Airlines web designer Melanie Stillings and 12 lost, dazed and confused students began drawing up ideas for the site in August of 2008. After knowing what the site needed to look like, the content that would drive the site and the tone of the content, design began. Call us for a list of software and CMSs that didn’t work out for us. There were a lot. We finally fell in love with WordPress and marched forward. However, we realized it was easy to get out of step. We contacted Tom and Jason from www.schoolnewspapersonline.com and asked for help. We really didn’t want any outside help. We wanted it to be all us. But we realized that back-in-the-day student journalists didn’t create the Apple computer or Aldus PageMaker. It’s the content that really matters. So it’s been great to have help from Tom and Jason. We worry more about the stories we tell than the PHP aligning with the JavaScript. (We’re not even sure what that means.)

We then won an MISD Foundation Grant for $10,000 to build a video studio in 2009 and LBTV was born. Opening all those boxes in March was better than Christmas. HD cameras, teleprompters, cords, mics, buttons to push, lights, backdrops. We gained the help of our Tech Theatre class to build a sweet set for a weekly news podcast for LBTV.

In 2011, Jim Cockrell retired and Rachel Dearinger joined our team as the LBTV adviser and assistant online adviser. Dearinger had an award-winning journalism program in Burleson, Texas and worked for the Amarillo Globe-News before teaching.

Today, we are viewed around the United States weekly and have over 2,500 “hits” a week. We’re proud of our accomplishments and proud to tell the stories of Legacy High School and the Bronco Nation.

www.twitter.com/therideronline | http://vimeo.com/user1533963 | www.facebook.com/legacyjournalism

FACTS ABOUT US

-Legacy’s online newspaper is student-run and operated by Legacy journalism students with assistance from advisers Jonathan Dixon and Rachel Dearinger

-Melanie Stillings, formerly at Ben Barber Career Tech Academy, and Jim Cockrell also helped in the launch of the site in April of 2009.

-Students working on the online edition also write and produce the school’s yearbook and print edition of The Rider

-The site is updated every day. Check the recent posts on our homepage for a quick link to the latest postings.

-During the summer, we post personality features and news updates.

-During its first two weeks of activity, therideronline had over 2,500 hits.

-There are currently 2,800 Twitter followers.

-Content on therideronline is managed by WordPress

-The site design is by Legacy Student Media students coding and other technical assistance is provided by schoolnewspapersonline.com