Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal (Memphis) won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2015 contest in column writing in the 30,000-75,000 circulation category.
Calkins won for his series of five columns ranging from a feature column on a terminally ill hospice patient playing his last round of golf to Ole Miss football.
Calkins will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2016 APSE banquet. The banquet and awards dinner concludes the APSE Conference June 22-25 at the Omni-Charlotte in Charlotte, N.C.
Balloting by six APSE judges ranked Calkins ahead of runner-up Lowell Cohn of the Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat and third-place finisher Jennifer Gish of the Times Union (Albany, N.Y).
The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
Sports editors in the 30,000-75,000 circulation category submitted a total of 63 column entries written or directed by APSE member sports departments in 2015. Contest chair and APSE first vice president Tommy Deas numbered each entry, assuring they had been stripped of headlines, graphics, bylines and any other element that would identify the writer or news organization.
In late February-early March at Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., preliminary judges selected a top 10 ranked, with each judge listing the stories in order from 1 to 10 separately on a secret ballot. The final 10 were given to a second judging group, which also ranked the entries 1-10 in the same fashion. The winner and final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots, giving an entry 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for second and so on down to 1 point for a 10th-place vote.
The top 10 is listed below with links to writers’ Twitter pages, APSE member websites and winning entries.
- Geoff Calkins, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis) 41 points, 2 first-place votes
Geoff Calkins: A story about soccer, teachers and getting off your butt
Geoff Calkins: Jackson Dillon, the Masher from Mud Creek
Geoff Calkins: No masking Conley’s will to win
One last round proves perfect medicine
Geoff Calkins: Freeze takes a stand, proposes Mississippi state flag change
- Lowell Cohn, Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat 40 points, 2 first-place votes
Lowell Cohn: Ken Norton defined by humanity, not glass jaw
Lowell Cohn: Shooting the breeze with Warriors coach Steve Kerr
Lowell Cohn: Only a game was lost, not the star
Lowell Cohn: Caitlyn Jenner deserves support, not criticism
Lowell Cohn: Tim Lincecum, the unforgettable ‘Freak’
- Jennifer Gish, Times Union (Albany, N.Y). 38 points, 1 first-place vote
Jennifer Gish: NFL’s Greg Hardy proves we don’t care enough about women
Jennifer Gish: Pushing with a purpose
Gish: Women hitting athletic director glass ceiling
Jennifer Gish: NCAA lacrosse rule change would benefit youth sports
Natalie Rosenstock blazed trail as writer that few have followed
- Pete Iorizzo, Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) 37 points
Joyous news of Peter Hooley’s shot spreads half a world away
Pete Iorizzo: Daily fantasy underscores need for more coherent gambling policies
Pete Iorizzo: Family of Craig Frear, missing Scotia man, needs our help
Iorizzo: Incident at high school game underscores fan behavior issues
- Aaron McFarling, The Roanoke (Va.) Times 32 points
McFarling: Forced activism serves nobody
McFarling: Dog day afternoon at Martinsville
McFarling: Frank Beamer departs while he’s still loved
McFarling: Bronco bucks convention, and it is beautiful
McFarling: At ease, Mr. President: Anderson ‘ready to rock and roll’
- Jeff Welsch, Billings (Mont.) Gazette 23 points
50 years after his bizarre death, Wayne Estes remains a towering presence
Welsch column: Parents, don’t let your kids become cooked frogs
Welsch column: Football is the quickest antidote for what ails MSUB
Welsch column: Billings gives Big Sky Conference every reason to say ‘yes’
Welsch column: Box score reaction epitomizes sports section dilemmas
- David Moulton, The News-Press (Fort Myers, Fla.) 21 points
Meyer is gone, Gator fans need to move on
FSW may not have to look far to find their coaches
Richt a perfect fit for Hurricanes
College football needs Miami Makeup rule
Benefield: Annadel, Henry Trione’s gift
Benefield: Valley Ford surfer gets a daily dose of waves
Benefield: In echoes of Katrina, words of hope for Middletown
Benefield: After Valley fire, return of football just what Middletown needed
Benefield: Santa Rosa schools should look before they leap into lacrosse
- Cory Mull, The News-Press (Fort Myers, Fla.) 17 points
Cory Mull: 8-year-old Cali hopes to beat cancer
Mull: Sports more than numbers, but facts matter
Kerkesner honors lost friend with state title hopes
CORY MULL: Bishop Verot grad gets scholarship at UF
Cory Mull: McQuinn toy drive seeks to inspire
Good friend Stump Merrill salutes Yogi Berra as ‘a class act all the way’
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