TSWA announces 2021 Hall of Fame class

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Sports Writers Association announced its Hall of Fame class for 2021 on Thursday, which includes Larry Taft (Nashville), Maurice Patton (Nashville/Columbia) and George Starr (Cleveland). The 2021 induction ceremony is scheduled for July 8 at Cumberland University, with Taft, Patton and Starr joining the Class of 2020 (Tommy Bryan, Teresa Walker, Mark Wiedmer).

MAURICE PATTON, The Tennessean/Columbia Daily Herald
The Franklin native entered sports journalism as a student at Middle Tennessee State University, writing part-time for the (Murfreesboro) Daily News Journal. Patton’s first full-time position came in 1987 as half of a two-person sports department at his hometown newspaper, The Review Appeal. He joined The Tennessean in 1990 covering high schools, the Nashville Sounds (1994-2008), the University of Tennessee (1995-97), MTSU (1997-99), Tennessee State (1999-2006) and Vanderbilt (2006-09). He covered the 1995 College World Series, the 1996 and ’97 Women’s Final Four, the 1997 NBA Draft, the 2000 Super Bowl, numerous SEC men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and three bowl games along with three spring training assignments. He was an Associated Press Top 25 poll voter for football and women’s basketball. He operated a Midstate high school sports website, MoPattonSports.com, for two years before being named sports editor at the Columbia Daily Herald in 2016. Patton is currently editor for Southern Middle Tennessee Sports, a digital platform focused on coverage of local high school athletics, and co-host of the sports talk radio show Southern Middle Tennessee Sports Today. The Tennessee Sports Writers Association's longtime treasurer, he ranks the opportunity to cover all three state wrestling tournaments (2012-14) in which his son participated – placing fourth in the latter two – as one of his career highlights.

GEORGE STARR, Cleveland/Lee University
A native of Athens, Starr began his career as sports editor at the Daily Post Athenian in Athens for four years. He worked as the sports editor at the Cleveland Daily Banner before becoming a sports writer at the Chattanooga Free-Press for four years. Starr returned to the Cleveland Daily Banner for 13 years, first as sports editor before being named managing and executive editors. He went to Lee University in 1997 as sports information director. He has served as the voice of Lee University basketball and baseball programs for 36 years and continued to work at the Banner during many of his years at Lee. He covered eight NCCAA national championships, four consecutive NAIA Women’s Soccer national championships and traveled to Lewiston, Idaho, for eight NAIA World Series. After Lee transitioned from NAIA to NCAA Division II, Starr covered three Gulf South Conference championships as well as deep postseason runs in several other sports. He guided the publicity of Lee’s transition from the NAIA to NCAA Division II in 2012 and produced numerous award-winning NAIA and CoSIDA media guides. In the beginning of the Lee athletic website, Starr directed the content of the website and led efforts to provide live stats and live streaming for all home volleyball, soccer, basketball, baseball and softball games. Starr is a member of the Bradley County Sports Hall of Fame, Lee Athletics Hall of Fame and Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame.

LARRY TAFT, The Tennessean
Taft has worked for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, The Democrat-Union in Lawrenceburg and The Tennessean, primarily covering high school sports for nearly 40 years. He covered his first boys’ state basketball tournament in 1973 and his first football championship in 1974. In the 1980s, Taft started a weekly football wrap-up complete with district standings used in newspapers statewide. Taft also covered the Nashville Sounds for many years, traveling to cover road games. He served as director of media relations at the TSSAA for 16 months before returning to The Tennessean. Taft was sports editor of The Tennessean for five years before leaving in 2012. He is a 2011 inductee into the TSSAA Hall of Fame as a contributor. He currently is a board member and secretary-treasurer of the College Football Hall of Fame's Middle Tennessee chapter, and earlier this year he was selected by the organization as a recipient of its prestigious Roy Kramer Contribution to Football Award. Larry and his wife, Dinah, have four sons and nine grandchildren.

Winners announced for 2019 TSWA writing contest

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Sports Writers Association released the winners of the annual writing contest this week. All of the first, second and third-place winners will be recognized during the Hall of Fame dinner and banquet on Thursday, July 11, in Baird Chapel at Cumberland University. Thanks to Ron Higgins for again coordinating the judging for all of the categories in the annual writing contest.

TSWA 2019 WRITING CONTEST RESULTS
Entries were from January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019

DIVISION I
GARY LUNDY WRITER OF THE YEAR – 1. Erik Bacharach, The Tennessean: Not one weak link in his three-story package. Wrote about three challenging subjects that required some real reporting, investigative work and multiple interviews. Tore down some walls revealing both sides of late Titans quarterback Steve McNair’s less-than-perfect life. 2. Adam Sparks, The Tennessean. 3. Mark Wiedmer, Chattanooga Times-Free Press.

BEST COLUMNIST – 1. John Adams, Knoxville News-Sentinel: Columnists should deliver opinions. They should not straddle the fence. They should avoid writing features and present them as columns. This best columnist winner brings it in every column. He surgically takes apart his subjects. Always delivers with bite, wit and logic. 2. Mark Wiedmer, Chattanooga Times-Free Press. 3. None entered.

BEST FEATURE WRITER – 1. Erik Bacharach, The Tennessean: Fearlessly tackled delicate subjects such as how the Titans thoroughly vetted Jeffery Simmons before drafting him and the double-life of late Titans quarterback Steve McNair. Delivered superbly reported and tightly written features filled with balance and perspective. This was a tough call between the winner of this category and the runner-up. 2. Adam Sparks, The Tennessean. 3. Mark Wiedmer, Chattanooga Times-Free Press.

BEST EVENT WRITER – 1. Adam Sparks, The Tennessean: Clear, concise ledes transitioning into three smoothly written deadline stories, including Vandy’s CWS championship clinching win. This writer did a phenomenal job providing context and background in a story on postgame dust-up between Vandy basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse and an Austin Peay assistant. 2. Mark Wiedmer, Chattanooga Times-Free Press. 3. Teresa M. Walker, Associated Press.

BEST NEWS WRITER – 1. Adam Sparks, The Tennessean: A trio of stories with multi-voices, multi-sources and each story answered every question a reader could imagine. The stories on TD Ameritrade Park officials threatening to toss the Vandy whistler and the unexpected death of Vandy AD David Williams were strong. 2. Teresa M. Walker, Associated Press. 3. None awarded.

Note: There were not enough entries in Division I to judge categories for best section, best special section, prep writer of the year, best investigative series, best individual layout and best outdoor writer.

DIVISION II
GARY LUNDY WRITER OF THE YEAR – 1. Cecil Joyce, Daily News Journal: Had two outstanding features but what separated him from the field was his willingness to tackle an enterprise story on why Tennessee high school athletes don’t have mandated heart screenings. 2. Kevin Weaks, Union City Messenger. 3. Scott Wilson, Cookeville Herald-Citizen.

BEST SECTION – 1. Cleveland Daily Banner: Big, bold color photos dominated this paper’s daily sections that were loaded with staff written stories. These are sections that serve its local readership well. 2. Union City Messenger 3. None awarded.

BEST SPECIAL SECTION – 1. Union City Messenger: Packs a ton of information and stories into separate high school and college sections highlighted by colorful, splashy graphics. It may not be a slick-magazine type entry like others, but substance wins over style. 2. Cookeville Herald-Citizen. 3. Cleveland Daily Banner.

BEST COLUMNIST – 1. Jimmy Hyams, WNML Radio: Love a columnist who takes a clear side in an issue and backs it up with an avalanche of facts and logic. 2. Joe Cannon, Cleveland Daily Banner. 3. None awarded.

BEST FEATURE WRITER – 1. Scott Wilson, Cookeville Herald-Citizen: There is something to be said for the winner in this category who entered three short features. The winner didn’t overwrite them, didn’t over-dramatize them, but he had three good hooks, especially the female high school football player. 2. Cecil Joyce, Daily News Journal 3. Kevin Weaks, Union City Messenger.

BEST EVENT WRITER – 1. Kevin Weaks, Union City Messenger: Short, snappy ledes led to well-organized, stories that told the reader exactly why one team won and why the other lost. Simple, clear, but not boring writing. 2. Cecil Joyce, Daily News Journal. 3. Joe Cannon, Cleveland Daily Banner.

BEST NEWS WRITER – 1. Jimmy Hyams, WNML Radio: Excellent, detailed reporting in each of his three stories. Did a nice job explaining how Rick Barnes was almost hired by UCLA and then about the NCAA’s proposal to take a second look at the graduate transfer rule. 2. Scott Wilson, Cookeville Herald-Citizen. 3. Kevin Weaks, Union City Messenger.

BEST PREP WRITER – 1. Cecil Joyce, Daily News Journal: Easily had the best variety of stories, but the feature on the Oakland High school soccer players from Venezuela was well-written, riveting reading. 2. Kevin Weaks, Union City Messenger. 3. Joe Cannon, Cleveland Daily Banner.

NOTE: Did not have entries to judge best individual layout.

DIVISION III
GARY LUNDY WRITER OF THE YEAR – 1. Jimmy Hyams, WNML Radio: This writer had incredibly strong column on the Jeremy Banks arrest, a solid two-part feature on Tee Martin returning as a Tennessee assistant coach and heartfelt personal column of attending the Cooperstown induction of his former American Legion teammate Lee Smith. 2. Russell Vannozzi, Robertson County Connection (Main Street Media). 3. Charles Pulliam, Williamson Herald.

BEST SPECIAL SECTION – 1. 2019 High School Football Preview, Weakley County Press: Twice as much information as the other entries. Smartly written stories, excellent graphics and the back cover schedule grid was a great idea. 2. 2019 Williamson County Football Preview, Joe Williams. 3. 2019 High School Football Preview, Macon County Times.

BEST FEATURE WRITER – 1. Craig Harris, Macon County Times – Three well-written features on three subjects that didn’t have tragedy, incurable disease or maladies that almost every writer in this category decided to enter. The winner wrote about two lifelong friends who became high school officials, two marathoners who ran 300 marathons in a year and on a high school golf program that produced 10 college golfers in 13 years. 2. Mark McGee, Shelby Times-Gazette. 3. Russell Vannozzi, Robertson County Connection (Main Street Media).

BEST NEWS/EVENT WRITER – 1. Bill Sorrell, West 10 Media: Loved the feature approach angle on all three of the category winner’s event stories. For any non-daily paper, it’s the perfect approach to cover events. Captivating ledes, great context in each story. 2. Russell Vannozzi, Robertson County Connection (Main Street Media) 3. Craig Harris, Macon County Times.

DIVISION IV
BEST FEATURE WRITER – 1. Thomas Corhern, Tennessee Tech Athletics: You could tell how much legwork, care and sheer perfection the winner injects into three unique stories, topped by the former Tech lineman turned singer who appeared on “The Voice”. 2. Chad Bishop, Vanderbilt. 3. Mark McGee, Lipscomb University.

BEST EVENT WRITER – 1. Jimmy Hyams, WNML Radio: Not a big fan of any story – especially event stories – that have too many short choppy paragraphs. It’s like stringing together a bunch of tweets. But the winner compensated with well-organized entries that made sense of the events covered. 2. Michael Wottreng, Carson-Newman University. 3. Lauren Moore, Lincoln Memorial University.

TSWA cancels Hall of Fame dinner

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Sports Writers Association has canceled its annual Hall of Fame dinner set for July 9 in Baird Chapel on the Cumberland University campus in Lebanon amid continuing concerns about COVID-19 and gatherings of large groups in indoor spaces.

Teresa Walker (Associated Press), Tommy Bryan (Wilson Post) and Mark Wiedmer (Chattanooga Times-Free Press) were scheduled for induction into the TSWA Hall of Fame next month. The organization will elect another class for the Hall of Fame later this summer/early fall and Walker, Bryan and Wiedmer will join those individuals during an induction dinner in summer 2021.

Union's Campbell, UT Martin's Perry named TSWA award winners

NASHVILLE – Union University’s Mark Campbell and UT Martin’s Chelsey Perry were named the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Women’s Basketball Coach and Player of the Year, respectively, as announced this week by the organization.

Campbell led Union to the Gulf South Conference regular season title for the sixth time in eight years of league play as well as the program’s third Gulf South Tournament championship, compiling a 26-5 overall mark, 17-3 in GSC action. The Bulldogs earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA D2 South Region Tournament.

He improved his career record to 639-99 (.867) over 21 years at Union. Campbell led the USA Women's Basketball U16 team to the gold medal in the America's Championship in Chile last summer, earning USA Developmental Coach of the Year accolades, and was named to coach the U17 team in this year’s World Championships. He was selected to the NAIA Hall of the Fame and the Jackson Madison County Sports Hall of Fame in Fall 2019 as well.

Perry averaged 23.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game, helping the Skyhawks to a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title. The Middleton, Tenn., native scored 740 points on the season to rank second in the NCAA (all Divisions) and first amongst all collegiate scorers in the state of Tennessee.

She became just the fourth All-American in program history after ranking first nationally in field goals made (286), second in total points (740) and third in points per game (23.1). She also ranked 11th nationally in blocks (86).

Perry garnered WBCA Honorable Mention Coaches’ All-American honors along with OVC Player of the Year and First Team All-OVC. She was also named a finalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award.

LMU's Schertz, King's Floyd garner TSWA recognition

NASHVILLE – Lincoln Memorial’s Josh Schertz and King University’s Jordan Floyd were voted the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Men’s Basketball Coach and Player of the Year, respectively, as announced this week by the organization.

Schertz led the Railsplitters to a 32-1 record en route to the best season in both school and South Atlantic Conference history in terms of winning percentage (.970). LMU posted its third undefeated conference season in five years, eighth SAC regular season championship and fifth SAC Tournament title since 2011.

Lincoln Memorial ended the season ranked No. 2 in both national polls and on a 32-game winning streak, the longest winning streak at any level of college basketball in 2019-20, which set both a program and SAC record. Schertz garnered South Atlantic Conference and National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II Southeast District Coach of the Year honors during the campaign while winning his 300th career game on January 8, reaching 300 career wins in only 365 games as a head coach.

Floyd averaged 31.9 points per game along with 4.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 steals for the Tornado. The Stone Mountain, Ga., native collected a slew of awards, including Ron Lenz National Player of the Year, First Team All-America, D2CCAA Southeast Region Player of the Year and First Team D2CCAA All-Southeast Region.

He also earned First Team All-Southeast District and All-America accolades from the NABC along with First Team All-Conference Carolinas and Conference Carolinas Player of the Year. Floyd set school records for points in a game (47), points in a season (956) and career points (1,900 in three seasons) while leading Conference Carolinas in field goals (327), 3-point field goals made (107), free throws made (195), points (956) and points per game (31.9).

He was named Conference Carolinas Player of the Week seven times and NCAA DII National Player of the Week twice during the season. Floyd recorded 19 contests with at least 30 points and eight with 40-plus points during the year.