Sean Keeler of The Denver Post won first place in the 2022 Associated Press Sports Editors contest in the Division A Short Feature category for “Meet the Avalanche fan who got banned for spreading his friend’s ashes on Ball Arena ice.” 

APSE contest winners will be honored at the 2023 APSE Summer Conference banquet at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on July 12. Click here to register for the conference, which begins on July 9 and will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of APSE.   

Steve Politi of NJ Advance Media was second, and Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times took third.                         

Keeler will receive a plaque. The second- through 10th-place finishers will receive frameable certificates.                                                                                                                                                                         

Sports editors in Division A submitted 60 Short Feature entries, which were 1,500 words or less. 

Contest chair Naila-Jean Meyers and fellow APSE officers Jorge Rojas, Dan Spears and Ed Reed prepared the entries. The contest is open to APSE members.  

Contest results: Sections, digital, video | Writing and photography

In February, judges at the APSE Winter Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., and remote judges around the country selected a top 10, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10. Entries were given 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for second and so on down to one point for a 10th-place vote. The final 10 were given to a second judging group, which ranked the entries 1-10 in the same fashion. 

The top 10 is listed below with voting results and links to the winning entries.

  1. Sean Keeler, The Denver Post 54 points (3 first-place votes)
  2. Steve Politi, NJ Advance Media 42 points (1 first-place vote)
  3. Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times 39 points (1 first-place vote)
  4. Chuck Culpepper, The Washington Post 36 points
  5. Brooks Kubena, Houston Chronicle 35 points
  6. Brad Townsend, The Dallas Morning News 33 points
  7. Matt Vensel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 32 points (1 first-place vote)
  8. Brian T. Smith, Houston Chronicle 28 points
  9. Henry Bushnell, Yahoo Sports 22 points
  10. Jorge Castillo, The Los Angeles Times 9 points

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