Journalists in the USA TODAY Network in Alabama were recently honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors in its annual contest for top sports journalism from 2024, with The Tuscaloosa News, Montgomery Advertiser and Gadsden Times garnering 15 total national awards.
The three newspapers compete in the D Division, comprised of small news organizations. Judging recently took place in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, supplemented by off-site judging by sports editors and journalists from across the country.
The Tuscaloosa News won 10 awards, with the Gadsden Times taking three honors and the Montgomery Advertiser two.
Anna Snyder, who covers high school athletics and University of Alabama sports for The Tuscaloosa News, placed in the top 10 for three categories: high school beat writing, explanatory and breaking news.
Chase Goodbread, sports columnist for The Tuscaloosa News, earned top-10 honors in column writing and long feature.
Colin Gay won a top 10 in beat writing for his coverage of Alabama football.
Photographer Gary Cosby Jr. placed in the action photo category.
The Tuscaloosa News also won department-wide awards for digital coverage and print portfolio. It was honored with an APSE Triple Crown for placing in those two categories plus event coverage for its reporting on Nick Saban’s retirement and Alabama’s hire of Kalen DeBoer as football coach.
For the Gadsden Times, Maxwell Donaldson won top-10 honors in the short feature and long feature categories. Dave Hyatt placed in the feature photo category.
For the Montgomery Advertiser, Mickey Welsh placed in the top 10 in both the feature photo and action photo categories.
Writing and photography categories are ranked from 1 to 10 by a panel of national judges, and the individual winners are announced in late March and early April. Individual category winners are invited to receive their award at APSE’s national summer convention, scheduled for June 26-28 in Minneapolis.