Dustin Dopirak and MJ Slaby, Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2015 contest in breaking news writing in the 30,000-75,000 circulation category for their story on the contradictory evidence in the police file of Tennessee football player Von Pearson after he was accused of rape.
Dopirak and Slaby 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 Jordan ahead of runners-up Marty O’Brien of the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) and Phil Barber and Matt Brown of the Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat. 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 59 breaking news 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.
1. Dustin Dopirak and MJ Slaby, Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel 42 points, 1 first-place vote
File on rape claim against Von Pearson tells varied stories
T2. Marty O’Brien, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) 39 points, 2 first-place votes
Poquoson football player Nate Ward recovers from head trauma sustained in Friday’s game
T2. Phil Barber and Matt Brown, Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat 39 points, 1 first-place vote
Climbers reach top of epic Yosemite climb
4. Jesse Newell, The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal 37 points, 1 first-place vote
Cheick Diallo cleared to play, gets 5-game suspension for $165 worth of impermissible benefits
5. Jeff Mills, News & Record (Greensboro, N.C) 35 points
Charlotte Hornets choose Greensboro as home for new D-league team
6. Mike Lowe, Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram 33 points
7. Katy Bergen, Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune 32 points, 1 first-place vote
Rowing park tower permit on hold
8. Steve Hanlon, Times of Northwest Indiana (Munster, Ind.) 30 points
Brawl stops Hammond-Griffith boys basketball game
9. Paul Suellentrop, The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle 29 points
Gregg Marshall agrees to remain at Wichita State
10. Antonio Morales, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.) 14 points
