News & Observer, Herald-Sun recognized nationally for excellence in sports journalism
The award-winning News & Observer and Herald-Sun sports teams added to their trophy cases en masse recently when the Associated Press Sports Editors and the National Headliner Awards honored the news outlets and their writers for excellence in sports journalism.
At the National Headliner Awards, Luke DeCock of the News & Observer was awarded first place for sports column writing, and DeCock, Jonas Pope and Andrew Carter were awarded first place in sports feature writing by an individual or team.
The News & Observer and Herald-Sun staff also earned five Top 10 awards in the annual national APSE contest in their respective circulation categories. The N&O is in the largest circulation category, while the Herald Sun is in Category D.
Individual Top 10 awards were as follows:
The team of Pope, Parth Prakash Upadhyaya, Patrick Obley and Chapel Fowler won first place in project reporting for their stellar work breaking down some obscure records in the ACC football record book.
Emily Leiker earned fourth place in explanatory writing for her story on East Carolina cutting its swimming and diving program.
Pope was sixth in the same category, for his look at how NC State rebounded from a miserable season to reach the Gator Bowl.
DeCock took home a fifth-place award in the short feature category for his story on Michael Jordan’s former high school gym.
Madeline Coleman was ninth in short features for her work covering Henry Coleman and social reform at Duke.
This year’s in-person APSE Winter Conference was canceled due to the pandemic, and all judging was remote during three weeks in February.
Andrew Carter won first place in breaking news for his story on the speedway in Alamance County defying the governor’s orders to host races with mass gatherings during the pandemic.
The Charlotte Observer’s Scott Fowler took second place in column writing and had one first-place vote. NASCAR reporter Alex Andrejev took third place in the beat writing contest and had one first-place vote. She also was awarded ninth place in short features for a piece on 88-year-old NASCAR legend Redd Farmer refusing to stop racing after nearly dying from COVID-19. In the long feature category, Fowler was awarded sixth place (Human toll of disbanding the Appalachian State soccer program) and Carter was seventh place (Surreal ending of the ACC tournament).
Carter was also awarded fifth place (one first-place vote) in explanatory writing for his story on COVID-19 breaking the college sports financial model. In the video contest, The Observer’s Jeff Siner took sixth place.