By Jeff Rosen
APSE President
Guerin Emig of The Tulsa World won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2017 contest in project reporting in the 30,000-75,000 circulation category.
Emig’s winning project was published in two parts and looked at the sacrifice and commitment of Tulsa Public’s nine high school football coaches.
Emig will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2018 APSE banquet. The banquet and awards dinner concludes the APSE Summer Conference June 17-20 at the Marriott Hotel Nashville/Vanderbilt University. The second- through 10th-place winners will receive frameable certificates.
The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
Andrew John and Larry Bohannan of the Desert Sun (Palm Springs, Calif.) placed second to Emig and Mark Giannotto of the the Memphis Commercial Appeal finished third.
Contest chair John Bednarowski and fellow APSE officers Jeff Rosen, Todd Adams and Robert Gagliardi numbered each entry. Preliminary judges selected a top 10, and from there another group of judges ranked the finalists in order from 1 to 10 separately on a secret ballot. Entries were given 10 points for a first-place vote, 9 for second, etc. The winner and final rankings were determined by tallying the ballots.
APSE’s projects category looks for work that sheds new light on personalities and issues in the news, including trends and original ideas.
The top 10 entries are listed below with links to writers’ Twitter pages, APSE member websites and the winning entries.
1 . Guerin Emig, The Tulsa World, 46 points
Beyond Friday Night Lights Part 2: ‘You want to change a kid’s life? Go coach here’
2 . Andrew John, Larry Bohannan, the Desert Sun (Palm Springs, Calif.), 44 points, 1 first-place vote
2 concussions, 30 doctors and 3 years of hearing ‘I don’t know.’
Brain disease from NFL ended her dad’s life, but it won’t stop her son from playing football
For 79-year-old former Raider, football cost him treasured memories and lifetime savings
3 . Mark Giannotto, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 42 points, 1 first-place vote
East basketball star Alex Lomax lives out his father’s dreams as ‘the face of Team Penny’
The Prospect: D.J. Jeffries, family embrace pressure of being a top recruit
The Potential: For Malcolm Dandridge, being ‘the biggest kid in Memphis’ isn’t always easy
Jayden Hardaway wants to be more than just Penny’s kid on basketball court
The Peach Jam: Behind the scenes as Team Penny tries to balance talent with teamwork
T-4 . Greg Luca, McAllen (Texas) Monitor, 38 points, 1 first-place vote
T-4. Staff, The Canton Repository, 38 points
When Lehman boys basketball made Canton a champion
Knights of Columbus: Aquinas’ 1996 girls tennis team set the standard for Stark County
A loaded McKinley 1960 swimming and diving team broke records and kept a state title streak going
State champs at last: The story of the 1983-84 McKinley boys basketball team
Day of dominance for Canal Fulton in 1938
In 1972, Malone’s cross country team went the distance
‘We were like a machine’: Mather’s Massillon teams dominated Ohio from 1950-53
Defense, conditioning keyed McKinley’s 2010 state title
Crusaders for life and champions forever
Dominant D keyed McKinley’s state title run in 1981
6 . Ken Willis, Godwin Kelly, Daytona Beach News-Journal, 31 points, 1 first-place
NASCAR and concussions: An old problem, a new concern
Part 1: Addressing the Problem
7 . Mark Story, Josh Moore, Lexington Herald-Leader, 30 points, 1 first-place vote
The Sweetest Century: An oral history of one of Kentucky’s most-revered state tournaments
The Sweetest Century: The team that saved Kentucky’s Sweet Sixteen
The Sweetest Century: Mason County’s Chris Lofton was ‘One of a kind’
Clay County vs. Ballard: The rivalry that showed the Sweet Sixteen’s best
The Sweetest Century: A year-by-year history of the boys’ Sweet Sixteen
30 years later, Clay County’s ‘Boxhead’ Rawlings relishes his Sweet Sixteen heroics
Catching up with some of the Sweet 16’s great folk heroes
At 100, Sweet 16 remains authentically ‘Kentucky’
The Sweetest Century: Ten iconic Kentucky boys basketball tournament teams
8 . Frank Scandale, Mike Zacchio, Nancy Haggerty, Stephen Haynes, Journal News (White Plains, N.Y.), 29 points
Abuse, pay driving referees away in public high schools
Refs say a culture of abuse has to change
Money may not be enough to grow ranks for high schools
Number of officials fails to add up, with age a concern
9 . Adam Zuvanich, San Antonio Express-News, 23 points, 1 first-place vote
St. Anthony coach wins custody battle over Bassey
St. Anthony coach Hennssy Auriantal dismissed after Charles Bassey controversy
College basketball recruiting scandal raises more questions about Bassey
10 . Dan Fleser, Knoxville News Sentinel, 9 points
How 5 persistent women were able to restore the Lady Vols name, logo
Lady Vols petition drive was ‘heartbeat’ for restoration of name, logo
Lady Vols museum or garage? Retired school teachers have it all
