Journal sports staff honored by GSWA

Brown won two photo awards including second place for “Coach’s Nirvana” which showed Winder-Barrow’s Corley celebrating after a win in 2009 and third place for “Yell For Victory” showing Apalachee coach Shane Davis during a state playoff game.

“Both of those pictures were standout,” said Bridges, who coordinates the paper’s sports section. “They were both used on the front page of the entire paper for that week, not just of the sports section.”

Other awards earned by the Journal included:

•Best Local Event Story, Bridges, third place, “Wildcats Win In Overtime;”

•Best Column, Bridges, second place, “Outfoxed;”

•Best Column, Bridges, third place, “Stafford’s Salary’s Out Of Touch.”

“Our goal is to provide readers with a quality, professional sports section each week,” Bridges said. “I am extremely proud of Jessica, who is a big part of our sports section being what it is. You can’t have a quality sports section without top-notch photographs and she gives us that week after week. It is always nice to be recognized by your peers. I put a great deal of stock in this contest because of the high quality of judges.”

Judges for the contest, which included submissions for the 2009 calendar year, were Malcolm Moran, former writer with the New York Times and USA Today and current sports journalism professor at Penn State; Dennis Dodd, CBSSports.com; John Pruett, former sports editor, Huntsville (Ala,.) Times and Norm Wood, sports writer, The Daily Press, Newport News, Va.

The Madison County Journal, a sister publication of the Barrow Journal, was named runner-up for best sports section in Division III.