Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times won first place in the Division A column writing category of the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
Contestants in the column writing category entered four-part portfolios, including one piece with a mandatory strong opinion. Plaschke’s winning portfolio included pieces on his personal battle with Parkinson’s disease; Plaschke’s own return to his Altadena home in early January 2025 after the L.A.-area wildfires; Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer in Game 3 of the World Series; and UCLA’s looming move from the Rose Bowl to SoFi Stadium.
APSE contest winners will be honored at the 2026 APSE Summer Conference banquet July 18 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va. Registration for the conference is open; you can register right here.
Plaschke will receive a first-place plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 48 entries in the Division A column writing category. Contest chair Perryn Keys and APSE officers Paul Barrett, Erik Hall and Tony Maluso prepared the entries.
Contest results: Digital, print and podcasts | Writing and photography
Judges convened in late February, in person at the APSE Winter Conference in Las Vegas and remotely around the nation, to select the top entrants, reading 192 total pieces in the category. The committee determined 10 finalists, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10. The final 10 were given to a second judging group in late February and March, ranking the entries from Nos. 1 to 10 in the same fashion.
The final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.
The top 10 are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses, along with links to the winning entries.
The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
1. Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times (2) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
2. Candace Buckner, The Washington Post (1) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
3. Mike Sielski, The Philadelphia Inquirer (2) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
4. Steve Politi, NJ Advance Media (Newark) (1) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
T5. Dan Shaughnessy, The Boston Globe 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
T5. Kevin Sherrington, The Dallas Morning News 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
7. Tim Cowlishaw, The Dallas Morning News 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
8. Bob Klapsich, NJ Advance Media (Newark) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
9. Barry Svrluga, The Washington Post 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
10. Marcus Thompson, The Athletic 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
