The Lion's Den won numerous awards at the Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC) Spring Convention in Austin on April the 18th.
Each year more than 1,500 students and advisers attend the spring convention at UT-Austin.
The convention showcases more than 100 instructional sessions on professional development, legal issues, trends in the field, journalism skills, careers, and job-related problems.
ILPC recognizes students in order to emphasize journalistic writing and coverage in student publications as a means of teaching higher order thinking skills, to maintain the student press as an instrument published by students, for students, and containing news of student activities; to emphasize the journalistic integrity of student publications and to discourage the use of student publications for purely public relations, "happy news" functions; to protect student publications from propagandists, faddist and those who would use it for self-promotion and self-advancement; to promote scholastic journalism as an avocation for the majority and to emphasize vocational aspects with care and discrimination.

Student publications are judged and assigned ratings by publications specialists. The judges are master teachers who have advised award-winning publications and who know the nuances of student publications. Medals and Certificates are given to those publications which earn the following ratings:

The 2008 Lion's Den year book received 21 Individual Achievement Awards (IAA) and a GOLD Medal for Tops in Texas. Students may submit entries ranging from news writing to sports photography to yearbook theme development. The competition is keen, and the champions represent the nation's finest scholastic journalism. After books are rated, winning books are re-evaluated and selected for Tops in Texas. This is the first year New Boston has won a Tops in Texas for yearbook.