Kevin Armstrong of NJ Advance Media in Newark, New Jersey, won first place in the Division A short feature category of the 2025 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
Armstrong’s winning entry took readers behind the scenes of a 90-year-old bar-and-gym building in Clifton, New Jersey, called The Courtside Pub, where plumbers, security guards and other pickup gods in their 40s and 50s play and drink at a small indoor basketball court with wooden backboards that shake after each shot – all under the supervision of bartenders and beloved 5-foot-4 referees.
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.
Armstrong will receive a first-place plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frame-worthy certificates.
Sports editors submitted 53 entries in the Division A short feature 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. 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. Kevin Armstrong, NJ Advance Media (Newark) (4)
2. Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times (2)
T3. Peter Baugh, The Athletic
T3. Matt Breen, The Philadelphia Inquirer
5. Steve Buckley, The Athletic
6. Steve Politi, NJ Advance Media (Newark)
7. Neil Best, Newsday
8. David Wilson, ESPN.com
9. Jeff Passan, ESPN.com
10. Noah Furtado, The San Francisco Chronicle
