Matt Stanmyre and Keith Sargeant of NJ Advance Media in Newark, New Jersey, won first place in the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Investigative category, which encompasses all divisions.
Stanmyre and Sargeant’s five-part series of stories looked into how youth sports in New Jersey often serve as a dangerous breeding ground for sexual predators, and how it’s not necessarily easy to determine beforehand whether those predators are convicted offenders.
APSE contest winners will be honored at the 2026 APSE Summer Conference banquet July 18 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va. You can register for the conference right here.
Stanmyre and Sargeant will receive a first-place plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 29 entries in the 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 a top 10, 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. Matt Stanmyre, Keith Sargeant; NJ Advance Media (Newark) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
2. Josh Peter, Nick Penzenstadler, Veronica Bravo, Ramon Padilla; USA TODAY Sports 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
3. Nathan Fenno; Los Angeles Times 1
4. Julie Scharper, Justin Fenton, Brenna Smith, Jonas Shaffer and Giana Han; The Baltimore Banner 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
5. Will Hobson, Albert Samaha, Sam Fortier; The Washington Post 1 | 2
6. Don Van Natta Jr., Kalyn Kahler; ESPN.com 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
7. Brandon Marcello; CBS Sports 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
8. Bob Hohler; The Boston Globe 1 | 2
9. Katie Strang; The Athletic 1 | 2
10. Dylan McGuinness, Jonathan M. Alexander, Matt Young; Houston Chronicle 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
