BamaCentral Wins Two Top-10 APSE Awards

BamaCentral takes home two awards during its first appearance in the APSE contest, while Sports Illustrated lands seven honors

BamaCentral won two top-10 awards in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest as this year's winners were announced Thursday morning. 

Tyler Martin won in breaking news for SEC Cancels Men's Basketball Tournament And Suspends Spring Sports Due to COVID-19, and Christopher Walsh in explanatory feature for Alabama's New Sports Science Center is all about the Pursuit of High Performance. 

The top 10 stories in each group will go through a second round of judging to determine first through 10th place. 

"It's always both exciting and humbling to be recognized by your peers, especially on a national level," said Walsh, who is also the publisher of BamaCentral. "Like with the teams we cover our success is due to the hard work of a lot of people and contributors, and we're very appreciative and thankful. 

"However, I'm going to borrow a line that's popular with Alabama fans to describe our hope and approach for the future: 'I want everybody here to know, this is not the end. This is the beginning.'”

APSE is considered the most prestigious sports journalism organization in the country, with it national contests recognizing outstanding coverage. 

BamaCentral joined last year as APSE used to solely be geared toward newspapers. This was the first time it was able to enter the writing contest.

While BamaCentral competed in the "D" category, as media outlets were separated by circulation/online size, Sports Illustrated had a strong showing in Category A with seven top-10 showings: 

Investigative

Jenny Vrentas: How Much Did the Saints Help the Catholic Church on Its Sex Abuse Crisis? More Than They Admitted

Beat writing

Pat Forde, college sports, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Ross Dellenger, college sports, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Long feature

Michael Rosenberg: In 1989, USC Had a Depth Chart of a Dozen Linebackers. Five Have Died, Each Before Age 50

Projects

Tom Verducci: Letters From 1918 1, 2, 3, 4

Video

Brian Burnsed: The Heartbreak of the Black Belt

Sean Dolan, Alex Hampl, Steve Cannella and Ryan Hunt: A Choice to be Made: The 2020 SI Sportpersons of the Year